International Year of the Woman Farmer: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-20
============================================================

Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

I move:
“That Seanad Éireann:
acknowledges that:
- the United Nations General Assembly declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF);
- only 13 per cent of farms in Ireland are owned by women;
- women make up 41 per cent of the global agri-food workforce; despite this, they often have a lack of access to land, finance, technology and training;
- women play an essential role in agri-food systems, for which they do not receive enough recognition, and the United Nations (UN) is trying to address this;
- Ireland is co-sponsor of the IYWF at the UN General Assembly, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is supportive of this initiative;
- empowering women in the agri-food trade leads to positive outcomes - hunger diminishes, dietary diversity increases, incomes grow, and households are more resilient to shocks; and it is estimated that by empowering women in agriculture, food insecurity could be reduced for 45 million people;
- closing gender gaps and empowering women in agriculture intersects with issues in relation to food poverty, malnutrition, education access and economic deprivation;
notes that:
- the UN is playing an important role in helping to uphold international standards in relation to gender equality;
- Ireland is committed to supporting the UN as an institution;
- the Programme for Government recognises the need to do more on gender equality - gender equality is a key objective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and a core principle of the European Union, and the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regulations place particular focus on promoting the participation of women in the socio-economic development of rural areas, with special attention to farming;
- the Programme for Government already contains commitments: to examine potential barriers for women farmers within the taxation system; to implement the National Women in Agriculture Action Plan; to support gender equality including promote female succession; and to liaise with the Revenue Commissioners to address any taxation barriers to female participation;
- a number of further IYWF events are planned and will be announced shortly;
- work has progressed on the Women in Agriculture Action Plan and a final report will be available later this year;
calls on the Government to:
- reaffirm its commitment to the UN International Year of the Woman Farmer;
- extend a nationwide campaign to inform civil society of the UN International Year of the Woman Farmer;
- promote the rights of women to address concerns around farm succession, examine the impediments by adding a wife or partner to a farm property and increase their participation in agriculture;
- launch an education campaign to promote women in agriculture with an aim of incorporating it into school and university curriculums; and
- introduce funding, resources and targeted schemes to enable greater involvement of women in agriculture and associated activities.”
As you outlined, a Chathaoirligh, we have 16 minutes. I will take 15 minutes and Senator McDowell will take a minute.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-20