NEWS & EVENTS

First published in the Irish Examiner on 10 September 2026. Reproduced with permission. Original article: https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-41909113.html CAP funds are misdirected from active food producers to landowners. A ‘starter’ question for five marks: What is a farmer? Have you got an answer? How about a follow-up question for €10bn (the total…

The Chairperson of ICMSA’s Farm Business Committee, Pat O’Brien, has said that “very hard choices” are coming down the line at farmers as tax bills from 2025 start coming through the letter boxes just as calculations are being done frantically on how to ensure that their animals will have enough…

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…

  Mr. O Connell has repeatedly stressed the importance of farmers being vigilant over the next few weeks for clinical signs of BTV as the temperatures remain ambient for midge replication. Noting that we are in an extremely challenging year in terms of both cashflow and weather, the Livestock Chairperson…

Ministers Harris and Chambers have been told that the “wildly erratic and unpredictable nature” of farm incomes is causing a looming succession crisis as more and more young people choose not to ‘ride the rollercoaster’.  In a meeting this afternoon, and with six-odd weeks to go before the 2027 Budget,…

Dear member, ICMSA is well aware of the pressures and extra costs the current spell of very dry weather has caused to farmers around the country and is actively lobbying Government for assistance.   Fodder stocks are under severe pressure on many farms.   ICMSA wants to establish possible fodder availability amongst…

Responding to what he described as a “frightening surge” in farm-related accidents and tragedies, the Chairperson of the ICMSA Farm Business Committee, Pat O’Brien, has urged farmers to ‘force themselves’ to keep farm safety at the front of their minds and work practices in the busy weeks ahead as they…

The President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, has called on the Government to accept that a fodder crisis is looming and to ‘get ahead’ of it.  Mr Drennan said that the competent and practical fashion with which the fodder shortage of 2018 was dealt with should provide a very useful template…

With the price of milk below the cost of production and with farm costs escalating by the day, dairy farmers across the country are becoming increasingly angry at the potential damage being done in the US butter market due to nearly direct competition between Ornua and Tirlan, two Irish co-operatives…

The President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, has said that “regrettably” the Fuel Support Scheme has failed to recognise the significantly higher levels of fuel usage on farms during the March to July period. “The case ICMSA is making is that the fuel scheme is ‘flat’ and based on 5/12ths of…