The Irish Cattle and Sheep Framers’ Association (ICSA) called for sheep farmers to be given a slice of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) fund to help them with low prices and high costs.

ICSA sheep chair Sean McNamara said that a €50m sheep sector support package is needed and that the BAR could be used to finance the group’s sheep sector aid plan.

Sheep farmers have been negatively impacted by Brexit as cheap non-EU imports of lamb are competing with Irish sheepmeat exports on UK supermarket shelves, the ICSA claims.

“From ordinary sheep farmers to TDs and consumers alike it is vital that support for the sheep sector is demonstrated,” McNamara said.

Crisis

“The sector is in crisis, and nobody should be turning a blind eye to what is going on.

“Our margin per ewe has been all but wiped out having dropped over 80% in 2022 and languishing at just €7/head."

The sheep chair suggested that the outlook for the coming year is no better and that additional supports would be needed into 2024.

“There is also zero optimism that things will improve at all during 2023. For any package to have a real impact it must therefore cover 2023 and 2024,” he continued.

Brexit ‘detrimental’

The ICSA stated that Brexit has been “hugely detrimental” to the financial situation of sheep farmers, who are among the worst hit by the UK’s exit from the EU.

It argues that the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with New Zealand is leaving Irish farmers more exposed to international trade than they had been before the UK left.

“Sheep farmers have always been amongst the lowest earners and therefore are the least able to withstand outside forces chipping away at their income,” said the sheep chair.

“Brexit is one of those forces and it has left sheep farmers in an even more vulnerable position.”

McNamara also called for Irish sheep farmers’ contribution to food security to be recognised when supports are being considered and asked consumers to continue to back Irish lamb.