Over €5.3m was collected in levies from farmers for farm organisations in 2014. The IFA, which received €4.7m, account for nearly 90% of all levies collected.

The majority of levies are collected in marts, factories and milk processors under the European Investment Fund (EIF). These levies were first introduced after Ireland entered the common market in 1972. It was the idea of former IFA president Donnie Cashman, who believed it was the only way to fund a permanent office in Brussels to negotiate on all farmers’ behalf.

The levy came in at 0.1% of sales, or £1 for every £1,000, initially in marts, with factories following quickly after. A levy on milk of 1% was introduced in 1983, just before quotas came in. The level was increased to 0.15% in 2002.

From the early stages, the levy was automatically taken off farmers’ cheques, although farmers always had the option to ask for them to be stopped. While all beef factories and co-ops would collect the levies, not all marts take them, with some private marts in particular not deducting the levies.

There appears to be very little transparency about what is collected by the factories and marts. The IFA receives cheques for levies with little or no information on the number of animals, litres of milk or tonnes of grain, etc, that the money is linked to. In some cases, milk processors and factories charge an administration charge to carry out the function for the farm organsiations. ICOS marts confirmed that 100% of the money it collects goes to the IFA.

The majority of the total pot of the €5.3m in levies comes from dairying. Dairy farmers contributed €1.9m or 37% of the total. The levies collected at beef factories were just over €1.5m, or 29% of the total. The marts collected just over €1m, or 19% of all levies collected.

The remainder of €797,000 came from pigs, grain, poultry, horticulture, aquaculture, sheep, potatoes and forestry

The IFA received €4.7m in levies in 2014, or nearly 90% of the total. Milk levies made up 32% of this at €1.5m, while beef factories accounted for €1.36m of 29%.

There was just over €1m collected from marts, with the remainder coming from a range of enterprises, with pork, grain and sheep likely to be the largest contributors. The levies taken off farmers account for 36.8% of the IFA’s income in 2014, with around 47% coming from membership.

Macra

Macra only gets levies from milk cheques. In 2014 and 2013, Macra received €332,000 in milk levies. The majority of this is from manufacturing milk, with around €20,000 attributed to liquid milk.

The EIF started to collect milk levies in 1983 when milk quotas came in. The original agreement between the IFA and Macra was signed by Donal Cashman, IFA president, and Richard Kennedy, Macra president, at the time. It showed a levy of 0.1% (£1 in over £1,000), with the IFA getting 70% of the revenues collected and Macra getting 30%.

At the time, the cost of collection was shared 50/50 between the IFA and Macra, but this evolved into the IFA collecting all the money and paying over Macra’s share periodically throughout the year. In 2002, the levy was increased to 0.15%, but the share changed, with the IFA now getting 80% and Macra getting just 20%.

ICMSA

The ICMSA does not get funding from the marts. It does, however, receive milk levies and membership fees from processors. This comes from farmers supplying milk, with 94% signing an application to have levies deducted for ICMSA.

The only co-op where they receive unsigned levies is Kerry Co-op, which divides the money collected in dairy levies 60% between IFA and Macra, with 40% going to ICMSA. They have been converting members to signed agreements and continue to do so. The ICMSA confirmed it received €1.4m in combined milk levies and memberships in 2014 from dairy processors, but less than 10% (around €120,000) is actual levies. The ICMSA received around €170,000 in beef levies, mainly collected through ABP plants.

ICSA

ICSA received no levies and are over 90% funded by membership.