Dairy beef scheme budget to exceed €10m per year from 2025

The budget for the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme (DBWS) is set to exceed €10 million per year to provide for the increased payment rate announced as part of Budget 2025.

As part of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's allocation from the national budget, an increased payment rate for the scheme of €40/calf, up from €20/calf, was announced (payments will still be subject to a limit of 50 calves per holding).

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue had previously stated that the annual budget for the four-year scheme (2024 to 2027) was reckoned at €6.25 million under the current €20/calf rate. The total budget for the scheme at present across the four years is €25 million.

However, this annual allocation will need to rise to €10.25 million to take account of the increased payment rate from 2025. This will amount a total budget over the next three years to €30.75 million.

The minister confirmed the figure in response to a parliamentary question from Clare TD Cathal Crowe, who had asked the minister to provide the necessary budget for various payment rates.

Crowe had asked the minister to provide the total full year cost of increasing the payment rate per calf under the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme by increasing the the funding to provide for per-calf payments of: €40; €42.50; €45; €47.50; and €50.

The figures provided by the minister show that €10.25 million per year is required to pay farmers €40/calf (reflecting an increase of €20/calf).

If the payment rate were to be increased to €50/calf (reflecting an increase of €30 in the payment rate), an annual budget of €12.25 million would be required (or €36.75 million over the next three years).

The figures provided by the minister are outlined below:

Increase in per-calf paymentTotal per-calf paymentAnnual scheme budget
€20€40€10.25 million
€22.50€42.50€10.75 million
€25€45€11.25 million
€27.50€47.50€11.75 million
€30€50€12.25 million

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However, the minister said it was important to note that the number of applications and animals eligible for payment under any department beef scheme will depend on a variety of factors.

These include general market conditions at the time of the scheme launch; the menu of actions required to draw down the maximum payment; variations in compliance rates for those actions; and the extent to which the action options are suited to individual production systems in the target population.

The minister also said that any increase in scheme funding would be subject to state aid considerations.

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