Despite all of the Government’s protestations, Budget 2025 turned out to be exactly what was touted – a budget that bids to woo voters in an election which we now expect to be announced within days.

While the main budget items announced by Minister for Finance Jack Chambers were aimed at courting parents, pensioners and workers, agriculture’s portion of the overall pot was similarly planned.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue was able to offer something for everyone in the audience, with €8m for suckler farmers in the Beef Welfare Scheme, €5/ewe extra for sheep farmers, €30m for the promised tillage fund, and a range of schemes and incentives that dairy farmers will be eligible for.

He even got the ball rolling on the long-forgotten ‘forgotten farmers’ with a fund of €5m and the promise of more to come in the coming years.

Of course, with a general election in the offing, it may be some other minister cashing all these cheques.

The total funding pot for agriculture amounts to just over €2bn, an increase of €158m on last year.

In its immediate aftermath, you would have to say that Budget 2025 will leave most farmers with a warm and fuzzy feeling through top-ups to existing schemes, albeit with much of the detail still to be ironed out.

However, against the backdrop of a booming economy and windfall gains that other governments can only dream of, there is nothing in the budget that anyone could describe as a game-changer for the industry.

Minister McConalogue passed on the opportunity to make a dramatic intervention on the perennial problem of farm succession.

Structure

There was no attempt to address the structural problem of the industry with a farmer retirement or a young entrant scheme, and so the ageing profile of Irish farmholders will continue to increase and the industry’s attractiveness to young people will continue to wane.

Climate change and emissions reduction targets will continue to dominate the agenda for agriculture, and we know that forestry planting is seen as the best way to quickly cut and quickly cut and, long term, soak carbon emissions from land use.

Yet the minister decided to cut the forestry budget by 17%. That decision may yet come back to haunt farmers, because without significant afforestation – which requires financial incentives – the focus will intensify on reducing livestock emissions.

Some €10m has been allocated for animal health measures, including IBR and BVD. As revealed in last week’s Irish Farmers Journal, the minister plans to fast-track an IBR testing programme in an effort to address Dutch demands on the health status of Irish calves it imports. With over 78,000 Irish calves exported to the Netherlands last year, and over 105,000 the year before, it’s clear that the Dutch trade for Friesian bull calves is essential.

And yet, concrete details of the planned IBR scheme remain scant. Is the minister hoping that an outline of an IBR programme will satisfy Dutch buyers? Hopefully not.

While the numbers of Holstein bull calves born on Irish dairy farms is dropping as sexed semen grows, our live export market is still a hugely important part of the livestock industry and everything should be done to protect it.

Is the introduction of an IBR scheme too late? Will it be enough to protect our live markets? We are 11 years into a BVD eradication programme. Farmers need a clear outline of the endpoint for BVD and an IBR roadmap.

We’ve seen from the nitrates derogation debacle that farmers pay the price when action is taken too little, too late. The coming weeks must bring action on quickly implementing an IBR programme that will retain the vital Dutch trade for dairy calves.

It’s imperative the minister keeps his eye on the ball, even if an election looms.