Dublin farmers received the highest Basic Payment in the country last year. Department figures show the average payment in 2016 per farmer in the capital was €27,119. Next up was Waterford at an average of €18,095, Kilkenny at €17,707 and Wexford at €17,388. Following them were counties Carlow, Wicklow and Tipperary.

Nationally, the average payment per farmer was €13,113. The farming powerhouse that is Co Cork had an average payment per farmer of €15,086. Sitting at the bottom of this particular ranking were Mayo with an average payment per farmer of €9,718, Monaghan at €9,806 and Sligo at €9,960.

However, if you look at the numbers of farmers involved then it turns out that there are just 1,084 farmers in Co Dublin enjoying this high average payment – clearly they are intensive and large-scale. Likewise the number of farmers in counties Waterford, Kilkenny and Wexford is relatively low.

Different picture

If we look at the total funding coming into a county – by multiplying average payment by number of farmers – then a different picture emerges. The counties with the highest number of farmers are Cork (14,477), Galway (13,298) and Mayo (12,244).

This time, Co Cork was in first place taking in €218.4m. It’s followed by Galway at €144m, Tipperary at €129.9m and Mayo at €118.9m.

Co Longford takes in the least in payments at €24.8m – has only 1,698 farmers receiving payment. In second-last place was Dublin, which took in €29.4m.

The payment figures are contained in the Department of Agriculture’s Annual Review and Outlook 2016-2017.