Minister Heydon announces commencement of €16.44 million in payments under the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme
- Published on: 10 November 2025
- Last updated on: 10 November 2025
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.
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”.
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”.
Notes
Applications for the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme, which is a one-year scheme, opened on 28 March 2025 and closed for applications on 15 May 2025. The scheme runs from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.
Participants in the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme were required to complete two actions from Category A, which were mandatory actions, and one action from Category B, which were optional or voluntary actions; therefore three actions overall if they wished to receive a payment of €11.50 per ewe.
This is in addition to payments that farmers may be eligible for under the Sheep Improvement Scheme where they are participating in that scheme also, which is paid at a further €12 per ewe for different actions.
If a farmer did not wish to undertake a voluntary or optional action, they could have still applied to the scheme by selecting and completing two mandatory actions, in which case they will receive €8 per ewe.
County Breakdown
|
County |
No Of Farmers Actually Paid |
Amount Paid Per County |
|
Carlow |
285 |
€470,525.00 |
|
Cavan |
307 |
€319,640.50 |
|
Clare |
89 |
€64,795.00 |
|
Cork |
713 |
€862,770.50 |
|
Donegal |
2919 |
€2,706,631.00 |
|
Dublin |
75 |
€106,777.50 |
|
Galway |
1459 |
€1,606,372.50 |
|
Kerry |
1234 |
€1,925,490.50 |
|
Kildare |
147 |
€312,978.00 |
|
Kilkenny |
128 |
€218,862.50 |
|
Laois |
102 |
€148,324.50 |
|
Leitrim |
485 |
€583,362.00 |
|
Limerick |
32 |
€50,771.00 |
|
Longford |
142 |
€154,300.50 |
|
Louth |
176 |
€288,710.50 |
|
Mayo |
1827 |
€1,884,610.00 |
|
Meath |
268 |
€481,994.00 |
|
Monaghan |
134 |
€147,220.50 |
|
Offaly |
127 |
€194,782.00 |
|
Roscommon |
538 |
€657,056.50 |
|
Sligo |
595 |
€715,068.50 |
|
Tipperary |
217 |
€376,650.50 |
|
Waterford |
153 |
€346,110.50 |
|
Westmeath |
183 |
€290,157.00 |
|
Wexford |
292 |
€482,546.50 |
|
Wicklow |
548 |
€1,041,586.00 |
|
Total |
13,175 |
€16,438,093.50 |