Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has announced a number of measures to support the farming and food industries.
The Department of Agriculture will get an additional €57m in current expenditure next year to support the sector in the face of threats posed by Brexit.
€60m in Brexit related supports will be provided to the farming and food sectors to support productivity improvements and improve resilience in the farm sector.
To prepare for Brexit, the relevant agencies will be provided additional resources to promote new markets and retain competitiveness.
This is on top of the Future Growth Loan scheme for SMEs in the agriculture and food sectors.
For the farming industry, Mr Donohoe said he was renewing the existing stock relief measures for a further three years.
He also said he intended to extend income averaging to farms with off-farm trading income as well as extending for three years the Young Trained Farmer stamp duty relief, which was due to expire at the end of this year.
However, the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has criticised the level of support offered to the agriculture sector in the budget
IFA President Joe Healy said that the suckler cow sector which underpins a €3bn industry needed a boost of €200 per animal, but had only been offered €40.
He said the market place was not returning a viable income to farmers, who could not cover the costs of producing top quality safe food for consumers at affordable prices.
He also said that while a €200 increase in the Earned Income Allowance for self-employed people, bringing it to €1,350 per annum, was welcome, it should have been brought to parity with PAYE workers at €1,650.
He described today's measures as a "first step", but cautioned that farmers will be looking for additional support, particularly to address the challenges of Brexit.
