Sheep Ireland funding to date

2008 – August 2012

The Department of Agriculture has provided the funding for all of Sheep Ireland activities in this period in the form of an annual operating grant and through capital support from the NDP (National Development Plan). Without this support the establishment of LambPlus, MALP and the CPT would not have been possible.

August 2012 – 2014

In order to facilitate the continued support of this National Development Plan funding it was necessary for Sheep Ireland to source some level of funding from an alternative source, namely the sheep Industry. This source of funding was introduced in August 2012 in the form of a levy on sheep slaughtered in our Irish meat plants. See this press release by Minister Simon Coveney in August 2012.

Other smaller sources of income include the annual LambPlus membership fees paid by ram breeders along with some flockbook fees paid to Sheep Ireland by breed societies using the Sheep Ireland database.

2014 – Present

The National Development Plan was replaced in 2014 by the Cattle/Sheep Breeding Infrastructure Program which is run by the Department of Agriculture. The purpose of the Infrastructure Program is exactly the same as the NDP which is to assist the ICBF and Sheep Ireland in the provision of cattle and sheep breeding services to Irish cattle and sheep farmers.

April 2023

The Slaughter Levy was introduced in August 2012 and was reviewed in 2022, and after industry consultation with the Farming organisations, DAFM and MII, it was agreed the levy would increase to 15c per head for each animal processed through the four largest processing plants. For more information on this see the press release here.