Tuning into the budget speeches last week, I was very surprised to hear Minister Simon Harris confidently declare that farm incomes rose 49% last year, without making any reference to the 38% decline in those same incomes projected by Teagasc for this year.

One quick look at my bank balance shows that any boost seen in earnings in 2025 has long been forgotten by my wallet, if not by the Minister.

It would certainly have been more accurate for Minister Harris to open his speech with “farm incomes in 2026 are expected to be 11% below the five-year average”.

But that might have led to some expectation that the rest of his speech would how produced extra spending for farmers, which unfortunately, it did not.