The rate of payment under the 2026 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers is unchanged at €157.50 per eligible hectare (ha) subject to a maximum of 50ha per eligible applicant.
Payment entitlements allocated under the 2026 National Reserve are also similar to 2025 with entitlements allocated at the national average payment entitlement value of €154.94.
This is just 3c higher than the value of €154.91 allocated in 2025.
The maximum number of entitlements allocated under the scheme is 50 per successful applicant.
Applicant correspondence
Approval letters, which can be accessed through an applicant’s agfood.ie portal, have commenced issuing to successful applicants and will be available to all farmers who have passed eligibility checks.
A text message also issued to such applicants on Tuesday 10 November advising successful applicants that correspondence regarding the CIS-YF and National Reserve an be viewed on agfood.ie.
Payment schedule
Payments are scheduled to commence in early December according to the Department of Agriculture.
The Department advises that where correspondence has issued to farmers requesting additional information of clarification to further process their CIS-YF or National Reserve then farm advisory system (FAS) advisers should ensure this is uploaded promptly to allow for approval and payment under the schemes.
Payments under the CIS-YF in 2025 totalled €38.3m while payments under the National Reserve amounted to €3.1m.
