Tillage Sector
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-14
============================================================

Marian Harkin (IND), Sligo-Leitrim

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am pleased, on behalf of the Minister for agriculture, to have the opportunity to address the challenges currently being experienced by tillage farmers across the country. To be fair, coming on the back of two extremely difficult years weatherwise, thankfully, conditions for harvest 2025 were much more favourable. It allowed fieldwork to be undertaken and completed in a timely fashion. It was much needed, although many spring crops have not come in as well as winter ones. However, the sector has encountered additional pressures, not least the challenging market situation and downward prices internationally. This, along with high costs of production, has significantly impacted on the margin for growers, with crops on rented land being particularly challenged.
The Government recognises the importance of the tillage sector as an integral part of the Irish agricultural industry. It produces high quality animal feed and bedding for the livestock sector and ingredients for the food and drink industry. The sector makes a significant contribution to the Irish economy, estimated at €1.9 billion per annum over the 2018 to 2022 period. It is hugely important in terms of employment and is estimated to support over 11,000 full-time jobs. Regardless of what the Deputy says, nobody is walking away from it.
The Minister regularly engages with farmer representative bodies on tillage matters. He has met with the Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Grain Growers group on several occasions since his appointment, including through pre-budget engagements and, more recently, at the tillage crisis meeting organised by the Irish Farmers Association on 12 September 2025. The Minister fully understands the concerns expressed by these organisations and their shared ambition to support, grow and develop the sector. The Government shares that ambition and is committed to growing the sector in line with targets set out in the climate action plan.
In 2026, the Department will be supporting the tillage sector with funding of at least €50 million through the protein aid scheme, the straw incorporation measure and the new tillage support scheme.
Having secured this additional funding in budget 2026, the Minister intends to consult further with stakeholders, including the IFA and Irish Grain Growers, on the design and operation of the tillage support scheme in due course. In addition to these measures, tillage growers will continue to benefit from other schemes next year, including the tillage capital investment scheme, ACRES and the organic farming scheme.
This year, the budget for the protein aid scheme is €10 million, having increased from €7 million to €10 million annually from last year. Applications covering approximately 66,000 ha of cereals and oilseed rape totalling €15 million were submitted under the straw incorporation measure, and the Minister made the decision to approve payments to all eligible applicants.
In February this year, the Minister announced €32.4 million in payments under the tillage and horticulture support scheme. The Farming for Water EIP, with a total budget of €60 million, is supporting targeted on-farm measures to improve water quality. Over 1,400 tillage farmers have expressed interest in establishing cover crops under this initiative in 2025.
I have more to say but I will wait until I am replying to Deputy Ó Súilleabháin's supplementary question.

---

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/dail/2025-10-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-14