News · Budget 2027
Budget 2027: recognise farmer-owned price transparency as agricultural infrastructure
The Summer Economic Statement published on 22 July allocated €1.5 billion for taxation measures — and contained no agriculture-specific commitment. Ahead of Budget 2027, we are adding one small, specific ask to the proposals already on the record. It sits alongside our existing suckler and CAP material; nothing there is replaced or withdrawn.
The ask
Independent cattle-price transparency and farmer-owned market data should be recognised as agricultural infrastructure. Budget 2027 should provide a small competitive fund for farmer-led digital tools that make official, mart and farmer-reported market information easier to access, while keeping the resulting service free for farmers.
What this is not
To be clear about the boundaries of this proposal: IrelandCattlePrice.com is not seeking control of official prices, and not seeking support for lobbying. Official price reporting belongs where it is — with DAFM, the CSO and the EU Commission. What we are seeking is recognition and support for independent, farmer-led market transparency: tools built by farmers, owned by farmers, and free to farmers, that make the information farmers are already entitled to genuinely usable at the mart, in the yard, and on the phone to the factory agent.
Why it belongs in a budget
Roads move cattle; data moves prices. A farmer selling this week negotiates against a buyer who can see the whole market. Pooling official figures, mart reports and anonymous farmer-reported prices in one free place narrows that gap — and the cost of supporting tools like that is small precisely because farmers build and run them. A modest competitive fund, open to any farmer-led project meeting the same standard, would treat market transparency the way public money already treats every other piece of farm infrastructure.
Our existing proposals stand
This item adds to the record; it does not rewrite it. Our suckler and CAP proposals — quality-linked coupled payments front-loaded to the family farm, a fair deal for the drystock finisher, the grass-finished bonus, and the land-mobility package — stand as submitted.