2638. Deputy John Clendennen asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine what measures are being considered ahead of Budget 2027 to address the volatile nature of farm income; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58188/26]

I am fully aware of the volatile nature of farm income. Irish agricultural output prices and input costs are sensitive to geopolitical and global economic factors, as well as more localised factors such as weather conditions. This can lead to significant variations in income from year to year. There are currently a number of measures, both through the €9.8 billion CAP Strategic Plan and nationally funded, designed to reduce risk and respond to market crises. One of the most effective tools in addressing volatility is the certainty provided by direct payments under CAP. Also available to farmers is Income averaging, which allows farmers to pay tax based on the average of five years' farming profits and losses.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to, “Consider further taxation measures to manage evolving issues such as market volatility”. Taxation policy is the primary responsibility of the Minister for Finance. Both our Departments engaged on this issue in advance of last year’s budget, and the Department of Finance produced an analysis for the Tax Strategy Group, which has been published (at www.gov.ie/en/department-of-finance/collections/budget-2026-tax-strategy-group-papers/). That analysis concluded that the introduction of an income volatility measure is not recommended on the grounds of cost, tax equity, tax administration, regulatory issues, and equality.

However, I remain open to discussing further with stakeholders any proposed measures in relation to managing income volatility.