New Irish National Sheep Welfare Scheme

DETAILS have been published on the National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS), which has opened for applications in Ireland.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that the payment will be per eligible breeding ewe and payment for full scheme compliance will be €8/ewe, (€4/ewe/action completed).

The scheme will run from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. However, actions selected must be completed by October 15, 2024. Reductions in payment will apply where not all actions are completed.

The minister for agriculture, food and the marine, Charlie McConalogue, said: “This scheme consists of a practical menu of health and welfare measures that are applicable to all types of sheep enterprises.”

Mr McConalogue added: “It is designed to appeal to all sheep farmers regardless of their flock size or production system, including those not currently participating in the existing SIS.

“The scheme sends a strong signal of my commitment to the sector and provides a valuable injection of support that will boost producer confidence in the future viability of sheep farming.”

Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) national sheep chair Adrian Gallagher said the scheme announced is ‘a practical scheme’ that ‘minimises leakage of monies by rewarding good practice actions on farms’.

Gallagher added the scheme ‘provides sheep farmers with the opportunity to receive payments on the maximum numbers of ewes by allowing the higher of the latest census figures or the average of the previous three years’.