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10 Nov 2025
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10 Nov 2025
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As part of the scheme Louth farmers will get just over €288k
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD, today announced that €16.44 million in payments under the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme have commenced issuing to farmers. As part of the scheme Louth farmers will get just over €288k.
Minister Heydon commented: “I am delighted to announce that payments totalling €16.44 million have started to issue to 13,175 farmers who are participants under the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme. This represents just over 90% of farmers who chose the completion date of 17 October 2025 for their chosen actions. A further pay run will occur in mid-December 2025 for those farmers who chose the later completion date of 28 November 2025 for their actions.
“The issuing of €16.44 million of payments under the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme is crucial to the sheep sector and farm families up and down this country. It is for this reason I fought for and secured a further €22 million for a similar scheme in 2026. The Minister continued “as a result of the oversubscription in the scheme with 17,278 applications covering just over 1.91 million ewes, it was necessary to adjust the payment rate to €11.50 per ewe which is still a 44% increase from the €8 per ewe paid under the scheme in 2024”.
Referring to the increase in payments overall for sheep farmers, the Minister said: “When combined with the €12 per ewe available under the CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) Sheep Improvement Scheme, this means sheep farmers in both schemes will receive up to €23.50 per ewe, an increase of 17.5% per ewe on last year’s combined payment”.
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Minister Heydon concluded: “My Department will continue to process, as a matter of urgency, all remaining cases for payment as they meet scheme criteria, but I would urge applicants in the scheme who have received correspondence from my Department, to respond as quickly as possible to ensure their payment can be processed.
“In that vein, the Department is also reminding all sheep farmers that they should ensure they return their 2025 sheep census by 14 February 2026 at the latest, as it is a key eligibility requirement for payment annually under both the Sheep Improvement Scheme and the National Sheep Welfare Scheme”.
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