The Department of Agriculture recorded an underspend of €78.6m in 2019 based on accounts presented to the Auditor and Comptroller General.

The Department had budgeted to spend €1.345bn last year but spent €1.246bn. This was up on €1.074bn spent in 2018 but €98.4m shy of its revised estimated spend. A total of €19.8m in capital spending was held over to this year. The biggest underspend was in the area of farm supports and controls, where the Department spent €19.4m less than planned.

The majority of the shortfall was in forestry, which had a budget of €104.4m but €13.7m less was spent. This was mainly due to a fall in demand for afforestation grants and forestry road supports. In 2019, just 3,520ha was planting compared to the Government target of 8,000ha.

Knowledge transfer

There were savings in the Knowledge Transfer scheme of €2.8m due to farmers withdrawing and a €1.7m saving on the fodder schemes introduced during the 2018 fodder crisis due to low uptake.

Beef sustainability schemes received a significant boost, with €87.1m spent versus a planned €67.8m. This near €20m increase was due to the once-off BEAM scheme introduced in 2019.

There was also a €7m increase in TAMS II expenditure. Farmer demand exceeded the available budget for the first time in April 2019 and has continued to do so since.

There were significant additional investments in Department office premises last year. An extra €22m was spent to provide physical infrastructure at Dublin and Rosslare ports due to Brexit.

The Department spent €5.6m less on food safety, plant health and animal health and welfare than planned. Much of the savings were due to a low uptake of a €100 per farmer grant scheme rolled out for sheep farmers to support the purchase of electronic tags.