There is general agreement that tillage farmers are struggling, with incomes under pressure as prices stubbornly stay slumped. The IFA, which has convened a crisis summit for next Friday, 12 September, in Killashee House, is demanding a €250/ha payment on all cropland. For the 334,000ha of 2025 cereal crops alone, that would cost an eye-watering €85m. Is this kind of money realistic?

To answer that question, we’ve taken a look back at the election pledges made by the various political parties during last November’s general election campaign. And it seems that an extra €60m a year for tillage farmers, on top of current schemes, was indeed the minimum offer made.

In an interview with this paper, then Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue articulated Fianna Fáil’s position as follows: “for the tillage sector, we’re committing to deliver €60m a year every year for five years, in line with the future of tillage report, to implement that and put a plan in place to underpin the sector.”

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Fine Gael matched this, with current minister Martin Heydon making the following comment during the Irish Farmers Journal pre-election debate.

“What our tillage sector needs is a Tillage Incentive Scheme with certainty over five years that’s for the tillage farmer, to encourage them to keep going.

“That’s €60m a year for a Tillage Incentive Scheme, but protecting the core schemes that are there, the protein aid scheme and others and underpinning the Straw Incorporation Measure.”

Opposition went further

Sinn Féin went further again. During that election debate, Martin Kenny said “€60m mightn’t be enough, it might take €70-75m a year, as you expand toward the 400,000ha target.” The Green Party’s Pippa Hackett agreed that €60m a year was needed.

Topping off the bidding war, we had Independent Ireland, which pledged €300/ha per annum. That would cost over €110m this year, almost twice what the two main coalition partners had pledged.

It all means that there can be no argument between the government parties about what was pledged, as they matched each other’s commitment to the tillage sector. There similarly can’t be any flak from the opposition benches should €60m be delivered this year, unless it’s criticism that it’s inadequate.