Government has ‘failed to support young farmers’ says Kilkenny TD

In response to Budget 2026, Kilkenny’s Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan has criticised the Government’s measures for family carers and young farmers as inadequate and out of touch.

Speaking in the Dáil, she said that the Government had failed to address the crisis in the care sector, comparing its response to arriving “with little more than a water pistol to put out a house on fire’.

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“The measly €10 increase to the Carer's Allowance is an insult to the 24/7 care that thousands of family carers provide day in, day out.

“This miserable increase shows just how utterly out of touch this Government is with the reality of carers who are physically exhausted, emotionally drained, and financially crippled.”

Deputy Newsome Drennan also criticised the Government’s failure to support young farmers. She highlighted that as a result, Ireland has one of the lowest rates of young farmers in the EU, while one-third of current farmers are over 65.

“As a parent with four sons on our family farm, I struggle to see a future for them in this farming. For the third budget in a row, we have seen no meaningful commitment to support young farmers or address the crisis in farm succession. The sector is bleeding, and this Government’s response is to stick a plaster on it.”