“Farmers are part of the solution not the problem. No other sector has been as vilified for problems not of their creation,” Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Fine Gael national agriculture and rural development forum on Saturday.

The Fine Gael leader, who since became Minister for Finance following Paschal Donohoe’s decision to take up a postion with the World Bank, spoke of the government’s commitment to farmers.

“We’re working hard and we’re trying to work smart on nitrates, Mercosur and CAP. These are Irish issues, they affect Irish families and the Irish economy. Farming is not some sort of tradition or something that we talk about in a warm and fuzzy way. It’s a modern, viable, sustainable career.”

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Harris’s comments on the Government’s spending commitments take on new meaning now that he effectively holds the budgetary purse-strings. “You try to niche your programme for government together based on your manifesto commitments” he said. “We’ve delivered budget one of five, we’ll have four more budgets to deliver.”

Simon Harris pointed to the election commitments that had been delivered on. “We have provided certainty over the various tax reliefs for the lifetime of this government, or the maximum period of time that we were enabled to do”.

The Irish Farmers Journalasked the Tánaiste why the election campaign pledges Fine Gael made, such as €300/suckler cow, €30/ewe and a €60m annual scheme for tillage farmers, had not yet been delivered.

He highlighted that the Programme for Government is the working document of the Government, not the election manifestos.

Minister Heydon noted the draw on departmental resources that TB is, but that he secured a higher budget for livestock schemes for 2026 despite this, with €50m for tillage schemes.

He and the Tánaiste also referred to the cabinet committee on water quality, which is chaired by the Taoiseach and attended by the Tánaiste.

“We had Uisce Éireann there, the EPA there, as well as me from the agricultural side,” said Minister Heydon. “But it wasn’t just about what our farmers are doing around water quality, it was everybody. Because this is a green jersey issue, retaining the nitrates derogation.

“The Commissioner [for environment Jessika Roswall] was struck by the fact that we’re bringing different State departments and different State agencies together,” he said.