Payments under the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) commenced this week, with payments worth €16.91m issuing to 15,527 participants.

This equates to approximately 90% of the 17,294 farmers who received payment in the 2024 scheme year. The advance payments are worth 85% of the total payments that a farmer is due to receive, with the balancing payment due to be paid in April 2026.

In announcing the SIS payments on Monday, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon said: “This is the third year of the Sheep Improvement Scheme and provides support of €12 per breeding ewe for actions that improve animal health and welfare in the sheep sector.

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“The commencement of these payments today demonstrates the continuing commitment of this government to the sheep sector.

“When combined with the €11.50 per ewe available under the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme, total payment per ewe is €23.50 in 2025, a significant increase from the €20 per ewe in 2024 where farmers were participants in both schemes.”

The minister added: “I am acutely aware of the importance of getting payments out to applicants as quickly as possible, on time and in line with the commitments that my Department has signed up to under the Charter of Rights for Farmers. €33.35m has issued specifically to sheep farmers for sheep support schemes in November alone.”

Important reminders

The minister also reminded farmers who have received correspondence from his Department seeking documentation or clarification that they should respond as quickly as possible to allow processing of outstanding cases to continue.

He also highlighted that for farmers to “continue to be eligible for payment for the two sheep schemes, they must ensure that they submit their annual Sheep Census returns on time each year”.

The Department of Agriculture has also highlighted in recent months the importance of participants completing the genotyped ram action before the end of year three, with farmers who do not complete the action facing the risk of being removed from the scheme and heavy penalties.

County-by-county payments

Table 1 details a county by county breakdown of payments. The counties with the highest level of payment in the first payment run are also those with the largest sheep flocks.

Farmers in Waterford received the highest average payment rate owing to a higher average flock size followed by farmers in Wicklow, Kildare, Meath and Tipperary.