A local Sinn Fein TD has accused the Government of failing to recognise the scale of the challenges facing farmers in yesterday’s Budget. Party spokesperson on agriculture, Deputy Matt Carthy, said Minister Pascal Donohoe’s offering this week provided "very little" for Ireland’s farming families.
He added the €11m of additional resources allocated to the Department of Agriculture in Budget 2023 would mean a shortfall for those farmers who needed supports the most. Deputy Carthy said Sinn Féin had outlined in its ‘alternative budget’ the need for a suckler farm payment of up to €300 per cow and calf and proposed a sheep scheme that would include €20 per ewe. He highlighted how at a time when farmers were facing multiple challenges from Brexit; rising input costs; and climate obligations, the Government had failed to recognise any of it.
"It is evident that there will not be sufficient funding for those farmers that need it most. Sinn Féin had outlined in our alternative budget a suckler farm payment of up to €300 per cow and calf and a Sheep Improvement Scheme of €20 per ewe," Deputy Carthy continued.
"We had also provided for all of the non-core expenditure included in the government's figures; for young farmers - including the so-called forgotten farmers - and provided for key environmental measures that would allow farmers to deliver on Climate Action targets.
"The Government's budget will not provide sufficiently in any of these areas. This is a budget that will mean little for our family farmers. And, at a time when farmers are facing multiple challenges from Brexit, rising input costs and Climate obligations, this is a clearly a government that fails to recognise the scale of those challenges."
