In Ireland, over 85% of the CAP budget goes to one gender, the secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has said.

Sinéad McPhillips made the comments at the department's recent International Women's Day Conference in Athlone, Co. Westmeath.

She highlighted that women have "always played an important part" in farms across Ireland, but have often been "absent in the statistics".

The event was held to mark both International Women's Day and the UN International Year of the Woman Farmer.

Give to gain

The International Women's Day 2026 theme is 'Give To Gain'.

"I think we can all agree that mutual support and collaboration are real strengths of women," McPhillips told the event.

"'Give To Gain' encourages that mindset, emphasising the power and support that comes from helping and supporting each other."

The designation of this year by the UN as the International Year of the Woman Farmer "is not only symbolic, but deeply meaningful", the secretary general said.

"When we speak about women in farming, we are speaking about the people who keep farms running, families fed, businesses afloat and rural communities alive," McPhillips said.

"We are speaking about women who are now stepping into leadership, innovation and decision-making roles across the agri-food sector."

Barriers

Women have always been "central to the farm, but often not involved in making the crucial decisions about the farm's future", she said.

"This year challenges us to correct that - not by rewriting our history, but by telling it properly - acknowledging women's contribution and rewarding their successes."

Globally, women make up a considerable proportion of the agricultural workforce, McPhillips said.

However, they often face systemic barriers: access to land; finance; and advice and training.

"When women in farming have equal access to land, finance, training and technology, farm outputs rise, innovation accelerates and rural communities become more sustainable," she said.

"Equality should not be an add-on to agriculture's success and sustainability, it's a driver of it."

CAP

McPhillips said that interventions have been developed in Ireland with a "gender-aware perspective", including through the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

These include the increased grant rate of 60% under the capital investment scheme to fund investments by trained women farmers (TAMS 3) and the promotion of women-only knowledge transfer groups.

Ireland was only one of two EU member states to have specific initiatives on gender in the current CAP, McPhillips said.

"As we now focus on negotiating the next CAP post-2027, we need to evaluate those interventions and see whether there is more we can do," she said.

In Ireland, 85% of the CAP budget goes to one gender, McPhillips said, which is "not the case in most other areas of EU or national expenditure.

"It's something we have to change," she said.

The CSO’s Census of Agriculture 2020 indicated that women accounted for only 13% of the total 130,216 farm holders in Ireland.

At the same time, results showed there were 75,113 female farm workers, equating to 27% of the total 278,600 in Ireland.

This pointed to over 58,000 women in Irish farming without visibility or farm holder status, according to DAFM.