Government “should be ashamed” of farm incomes revealed by survey

The President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, has said that the Teagasc National Farm Survey, released this week shows a 69% collapse in dairy farm incomes in just the last year.

Mr Drennan claimed that "Government’s inaction" in the face of the collapse in dairy farmer incomes must now be deemed "deliberate" and "a matter of State policy".

The Teagac results confirmed a very difficult year for income levels across farm systems in Ireland in 2023. Dairy farms in particular experienced steep reductions in farm income in 2023. Teagasc "largely" attributed this to due to a sharp decline in milk, and lower production volumes, in a period of stubbornly high input prices, exasperated by the bad weather.

Drystock farms also experienced a notable decline in income in 2023. All farm systems recorded their lowest average incomes in several years.

The decline in Dairy farm incomes in 2023 follows on from a year of record incomes in 2022, illustrating yet again the highly volatile nature of farm income in both of these farm systems in Ireland.

While the dairy cow population continued to increase in 2023, milk output volume fell by 4% in the face of low profitability and challenging production conditions at the back end of last year. It resulted in an average dairy farm income of just under €49,500 in 2023, a decrease of 69%, or in excess of €105,000, compared to the 2022 level.

ICMSA President Denis Drennan was angered by the results of the report.

“Try and imagine any other occupation in Ireland working a 60-hour week where a Government agency produces figures showing a fall income in just a single calendar year of almost 70%? Try and imagine a situation in, for instance, the public sector where any group of workers were asked to just shrug and accept a fall in income of even 7% - still less 70%.

"Imagine the response and imagine the Government falling over itself to apologise and come forward with reasons explaining away the fall in income."

He accused the government of indifference to their plight and with a focus on "preparing the next round of ‘Green’ regulations or useless and half-baked schemes aimed at non-commercial farming".

"It’s actually impossible to exaggerate the shambles that the Government has made of what was until recently Irish Agri’s ‘Flagship’ sector – the one area in which Ireland was deemed ‘world-beating’ and the economic engine of rural Ireland”, said Mr. Drennan.