IFA Sheep Committee bring campaign to Department of Agriculture

The IFA National Sheep Committee brought the campaign for stronger supports for the sheep sector to the Department of Agriculture, last week.

IFA Sheep Chairman Kevin Comiskey submitted a letter to Minister Charlie McConalogue highlighting the deepening income crisis on sheep farms and setting out the urgent need for immediate direct supports. This was requested by the Chair of the Food Vision Group last Friday.

Following a request from Minister McConalogue, the Chair of the Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group convened a meeting of the group focused on the sheep sector last Friday.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the market situation in the sheep sector with presentations from DAFM, An Bord Bia and Teagasc on current supports and activities to inform stakeholder discussions on what more can be done to support the sector in the current circumstances.

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The sector is currently in crisis with sheep farmers’ margins effectively wiped out, dropping 81% to just €7/ewe in 2022 and based on the presentations from both Teagasc and Bord Bia, limited opportunity for any significant increase in 2023.
This crisis can only be alleviated by immediate direct supports for sheep farmers from Government, including: Direct targeted support of €30/ewe to support the economic viability of the sector must be provided.

Store lamb finishers are a vital outlet for hill sheep farmers and play a key role in our production supply systems, direct supports are critical to maintain this outlet for hill sheep farmers.
Farmers must be directly supported to offset the cost of shearing and incentivised to present wool in optimum condition to facilitate further processing.

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“We need action now. Without it, Ireland’s second-largest farm sector carried out on 36,000 farms in some of the most difficult land types in the country will be put at risk”.
“IFA made a clear case to Minister McConalogue that support of €30/ewe was needed for the sector. Instead, the Minister went with €12/ewe, which is way too low given the impact of inflation on the sector,” he said.