Sinn Féin has called for farm payments to be protected as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has been asked to find savings of around €26 million next year.

As previously reported by Agriland, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has confirmed the levies to be applied to government departments following an overspend in education.

The proposed spending levy to be applied for the department of agriculture is 1.3%.

Based on DAFM's current expenditure allocation for this year, this means the department will have to identify savings of €25.6 million for 2027.

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féinspokesperson on Agriculture and Food, Martin Kenny has called on the government to assure farmers that there will not be cuts to farm payments as a result of the levy being applied to DAFM.

He said the savings must not come at the expense of farmers.

"Farmers have faced a very difficult year so far with a long winter and late spring costing farmers a lot more on feeding livestock.

"Then we had the US war in Iran which sent fuel prices and fertiliser prices skyrocketing.

"All of this will have a knock-on effect on the cost of production across all agricultural sectors, yet farmers won’t be able to pass these increases in production costs on, as farmers are price takers and not price givers," he said.

"I am calling on the Minister for Agriculture [Martin Heydon] to provide assurances to farmers that he will not cut farm payments to provide savings to Minister Chambers," Deputy Kenny added.

A spokesperson for Minister Heydon told Agriland: "The proposed levy on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is €26 million".

"The specific implications of the levy are being examined by Minister Heydon and he will engage with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation as part of his negotiatons for Budget 2027".