Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) will deliver some €9.8 billion to our farm families over the next five years to support them to continue to produce world-class, safe and sustainable food as well as supporting them in their important work of meeting our climate ambitions. This includes EU CAP funding for Ireland of €7.53 billion over the five-year period from 2023 to 2027. This EU funding is split between Pillar I Direct Payments and Sectoral Interventions (€5.97 billion) and Pillar II Rural Development Interventions (€1.56 billion). The allocation from the national exchequer to co-fund the Rural Development element of the CSP amounts to €2.30 billion bringing the total to €3.86 billion in respect of the Rural Development component of the Plan. The increased national co-funding of €2.30 billion is a substantial increase on the existing rural development programme, and reflects an increase in the co-financing percentage from 43% to 60% over the previous programme.
All funding under Pillar 1 went directly to farmers. Under Pillar 2, approximately €8 million was paid to the ACRES Co-operation Project teams. This accounted for 0.5% of the total payments of €1.5bn under both Pillars paid out in 2023. These teams are facilitating farmers to receive higher payments through a local approach to addressing biodiversity, climate and water objectives in their area. All other payments were made to farmers.
Table 1: CSP Expenditure by Intervention, 2023
Intervention
|
Total
|
Pillar I
|
€m
|
Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS)
|
660.0
|
Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS)
|
113.5
|
Eco-scheme
|
295.5
|
Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF)
|
23.0
|
Protein Aid
|
9.5
|
Total PI
|
1,101.5
|
Pillar II
|
€m
|
Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC)
|
246.0
|
ACRES (including CP Teams)
|
76.5
|
ACRES Training
|
5.0
|
Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM)
|
13.0
|
Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme incl training (SCEP)
|
46.5
|
Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS)
|
19.0
|
Technical Assistance
|
0.8
|
Total PII
|
406.8
|
Total PI + PII
|
1,508.3
|