ICMSA say “Maximum Permissible Funding” must be allocated to Fertiliser Scheme

Speaking following a meeting yesterday (7 Sept) with senior officials of the Department of Agriculture, Food & Marine , ICMSA President, Denis Drennan, has called on Minister Heydon to allocate the maximum allowable amount of funding to the scheme under EU regulations.  

“The Department officials stated today that if the Fertiliser Scheme is to rely on just the EU funding, farmers will likely receive just over €11 per tonne support. To put it mildly, that kind of funding is a complete insult to farmers who have faced a brutal and horrendous 2026 in terms of weather, output price, and inflated costs. The whole structure of farming in Ireland is financially creaking and all we seem to be hearing – let alone receiving – from Government is expressions of understanding and tokenistic support. It’s not good enough and the underlying fundamental problem – wildly erratic income volatility – is not being even addressed, let alone solved. Cashflow is already a massive issue as we face into the winter and it is about time our government ‘stepped up’ and began actively supporting the farmers producing our food”, said Mr Drennan.

Noting that the Minister has the option to increase the level of funding by 200%, the ICMSA President said that farmers will be watching very closely to see whether the Minister is actually in earnest about helping them or whether it is – yet again – more talk than action.

“The problems of farmers producing food have been ignored for far too long by this Government and the first step to changing that has to be the maximum level of funding being allocated to this scheme and paid out to farmers as soon and as simply as possible”, concluded Mr. Drennan.

Ends      8 September 2026

Denis Drennan, 086-8389401

President, ICMSA

Or

Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758

ICMSA Press Office