So, what will Budget 2027 be remembered for? From a farming point of view, it may be quickly forgotten.

If it was a colour, it would probably be beige. What shade of beige depends on your viewpoint.

Opposition parties framed the budget as being a reduction on the money allocated for the Department of Agriculture in last year’s budget.

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Martin Heydon strongly countered that argument, highlighting that those particular maths only worked when the €100m exceptional funding for the fuel-subsidy-support-scheme is added in.

The fact that this mathematical conundrum was the main point of debate in a budget allocation of €2.344bn is probably an indication of just how little controversy is attached to Budget 2027.

No drama

If you are Martin Heydon, that is probably a good outcome. ‘No drama’ is never bad news for a cabinet minister.

Interestingly, one member of the press highlighted the small proportion of farmers who availed of the fuel-support scheme back in May. The inference of the question wasn’t clear.

It could have been an implied criticism that the scheme had failed to reach the majority of farmers.

Then again, it could have been drawing attention to the anomaly that there were 122,000 BISS applicants this year, but only 32,000 farmers applied for a fuel-support payment.

In either event, Minister Heydon was firm in his assertion that the 3,000 agri-contractors who availed of fuel support are responsible for much of the machinery work on smaller and part-time farms, which could explain the apparent gap.

Treading water

The other thing that was apparent in the framing and the reaction to Budget 2027 is that it was an exercise in holding firm/treading water, framed against the backdrop of the ending of one CAP programme and budget, and the building of another.

In that regard, we saw items like the extra funding for the Straw Incorporation Measure to ensure it could meet demand from tillage farmers in 2027, and the highest annual allocation yet for TAMS of over €90m.

It feels like the ministers and Department are already moving on from the domestic budget provision for the next year, toward the broader CAP budget for the next decade.

While farmers are underwhelmed with a static government budget allocation for their sector, most farm organisations would bite the hand off anyone who offered a similarly unchanged budget for the CAP in the next multi-annual financial framework.

There are worse things than boring.