{"id":410522,"date":"2026-04-21T19:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410522\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:42:10","slug":"was-varadkar-wrong-about-rural-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410522\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Varadkar wrong about rural Ireland? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar<\/a> has raised hackles among farmers by claiming urban Ireland is paying \u201call the bills\u201d<\/a> for rural communities. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in rural Ireland are very quick to tell people in urban Ireland that, you know, \u2018we\u2019re the real workers, we\u2019re the ones paying all the bills, we\u2019re the ones feeding the country\u2019,\u201d the former Fine Gael<\/a> leader said on a podcast. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think maybe we need to be a little bit more blunt in urban Ireland and say \u2018actually, that\u2019s not the case\u2019,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the ones paying all the bills and you\u2019re the ones who are in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don\u2019t get and maybe we need to sit around the table and have an honest discussion about some of that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaction in the farming world was as sharp as it was predictable. <\/p>\n

Martin Heydon<\/a>, Minister for Agriculture and himself a Fine Gael TD, said Varadkar\u2019s remarks \u201clacked balance\u201d and were unnecessarily divisive. \u201cFarmers and the agri-food sector enhance us as a country both economically and socially, particularly in rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish Farmers\u2019 Association<\/a> (IFA) president Francie Gorman said farmers have \u201cgiven really good value\u201d for the financial support they receive. \u201cThe idea that you can have a rural-based economy in Ireland and not have agriculture at the backbone of it, that just doesn\u2019t stand up,\u201d Gorman said. <\/p>\n

Another agricultural figure, speaking on condition of anonymity, was more forceful, noting huge price volatility that could lead to some farmers making \u20ac80,000 one year \u201cand then nothing\u201d for the next two. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s annoying people is the tone,\u201d the person said, arguing Varadkar seemed to be implying the supply of food was a given, \u201clike oxygen\u201d, with no effort required to produce it. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0IFA rejects Varadkar comments that Ireland\u2019s urban people are \u2018paying all the bills\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is disputing that pharma or tech contribute more to the economy. But it\u2019s this dismissive attitude that these \u2018bog-monsters\u2019 have their hand out looking for more. I\u2018d like to see Leo milk 120 cows twice a day \u2013 every day.\u201d <\/p>\n

But is Varadkar correct to claim farmers receive disproportionate benefits from the public purse and, in effect, are not paying their way?<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Varadkar\u2019s two-way characterisation of farmers and others, eg PAYE workers, ignores the reality that most of those with very low farm incomes and a high dependence of their farm income on subsidies are also working off the farm, and are generally paying PAYE tax,\u201d said Kevin Hanrahan, head of the rural economy development programme at Teagasc, the national body for agricultural research. <\/p>\n

Citing 2020 Revenue Commissioners\u2019 research on farm income, he added: \u201cMy take was that on average those households paying on farming incomes were generally earning as much if not more income from non-agricultural sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figures from Heydon\u2019s department show farm and fishing sectors were subsidised by more than \u20ac2.18 billion in 2025, a flow of money that began when Ireland joined the then EEC in 1973. <\/p>\n

The main source was the EU\u2019s Common Agricultural Policy <\/a>(Cap) but Dublin is a net contributor to the Brussels budget so this is no longer a one-way street. <\/p>\n

Quite how much the Cap benefits Ireland is another matter but the basic argument is simple. \u201cFood prices to all consumers \u2013 including urban ones \u2013 are lower by virtue of the support provided to farmers,\u201d the IFA said. <\/p>\n

Hanrahan said the agricultural contribution to national income was measured by the sector\u2019s gross value-added. This was \u20ac6.77 billion in 2024, including \u20ac1.99 billion in net subsidies, so subsidies contributed almost 30 per cent. <\/p>\n

But that was only part of the story, as it excludes the far larger \u20ac11.54 billion contribution of the agri-food and beverage sectors. These received no net subsidy and paid \u20ac112 million in tax on production. Combining agriculture and agri-food, the 2024 contribution of subsidies was in the region of 10 per cent. <\/p>\n

As for the subsidy benefit to individuals, Hanrahan said this depended on the farms in question and the type of farming. Data showed average family farm income of \u20ac36,256 in 2024, with direct subsidy payments of \u20ac21,388, implying a subsidy share a little below 60 per cent.<\/p>\n

Still, the level of subsidy dependence varied as some farmers received little or no support. \u201cExamples are pig and poultry farms that produce lots of output and \u2013 in good years \u2013 lots of profit but which have little if any direct payments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average dairy farm in 2024 had a family farm income of \u20ac108,672 and direct payment receipts of \u20ac24,445, a share of 22.5 per cent,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cCattle-rearing farms [suckler farms] had an average family farm income of \u20ac13,788 in 2024 and total direct payment receipts of \u20ac17,743, implying that direct payments aka subsidies accounted for 129 per cent of farming income.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has raised hackles among farmers by claiming urban Ireland is paying \u201call the bills\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[113,61,60,12468,3581,43,31615],"class_list":{"0":"post-410522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-economy","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-irish-farmers-association","12":"tag-leo-varadkar","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-teagasc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}