Tillage Sector
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-14
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Peter 'Chap' Cleere (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny

I welcome the €50 million additional funding and the commitment given today that a consultation process with key stakeholders will take place. When 1,000 farmers attend a meeting, it shows that there is a problem and a big challenge in the sector. We know the tillage sector contributes €1.3 billion annually to the Irish economy, but the sector is in decline, as the Minister outlined. The area under tillage farming in Ireland has reduced by 40% in 40 years. We are not tilling as much land as we were previously. The decline, as the Minister said, is a result of numerous pressures on the sector, including high input prices, competition for land and low global grain prices. Ireland now has one of the lowest percentages of land devoted to arable cropping among EU countries, at about 6.5% of the utilisable agricultural area. This is a huge challenge and a huge problem. I acknowledge and welcome the additional supports that are going to be put in place, but more needs to be done to future-proof this sector in the short, medium and longer term.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-14