Farmers contributed only 1.4 per cent of the total income tax take in 2002 in what the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, described yesterday as "a difficult year for the farming community".
Launching the 2002/2003 Annual Review and Outlook for his Department, the Minister said that in the previous year, 2001, 43,000 farmers had paid €107 million on farm profits, an average of €2,500 per farm.
The review showed that in 2002, based on provisional estimates, farmers paid €126 million on farm profits - 1.4 per cent - compared to 78.6 per cent from the PAYE sector and 20 per cent from other self-employed.
"The estimated average tax payment by sectors in 2002 was €6,430 for PAYE workers, €1,271 from farmers and €8,802 from other self-employed," said the report.
Launching the report, Mr Walsh said that the average income per farm in 2002 had dropped by 6.8 per cent, based on CSO data as a result of bad weather, a drop in beef and sheep slaughterings and lower returns from dairying.
However, according to the National Farm Survey results, published by Teagasc, full-time farmers made €30,959 in 2001 and part-time farmers made €5,948.
"It should be noted that while their income is coming under continuing pressure, full-time farmers are still making a decent return from farming, with income comparable to the rest of society," he said.
He said direct payments from the EU, at €1,641 million, accounted for 64 per cent of farm income, or €13,000 per farm.
"There is a common misconception that 80 per cent of EU payments go to the top 20 per cent of producers. This is not the case in Ireland because we know that the top 20 per cent of farmers here in terms of income receive 36 per cent of direct payments while the bottom 20 per cent receive 10 per cent of payments," he said.
Part-time farming, he said, was becoming more common and about 44 per cent of farmers had another occupation. It was also the case here that 60 per cent of farm household income, that is the income coming into a farm family home, was earned off the farm.
He said 64 per cent of farmers or their spouses had income from either off-farm employment, pensions or social welfare.
Mr Walsh, who became deeply embroiled in a row over farm incomes and how they were calculated earlier this year during the IFA tractor protest, announced that he was setting up a steering group on farm household income.
"We do not do incomes here in the Department. We rely on data from other bodies like the Central Statistics Office and Teagasc which we analyse and these bodies use different methodologies," he said.
"I have asked my officials to compile a report so we can compile the best and most accurate results from these bodies," he said.
Mr Walsh said the two main challenges facing farming this year were the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and the World Trade talks.
He was still opposing the main plank of CAP reform, decoupling, and he expected the next round of World Trade talks to resume in Mexico in September.
Given that the weather was already better this year than last year, he was hoping, weather permitting, for a substantial recovery in farming this year and the indications for that looked good. While Irish farmers had to address its competitiveness, beef, dairy and cereal markets should continue to improve or stabilise and sheep prices should remain firm.