There was a significant increase in the Estimates for Agriculture and Food, which at £449.8 million represented a 19 per cent increase or nearly £90 million more than last year.
Welcoming the Estimate, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said the increase would underpin the sector during a difficult period and would help build for future development.
He said he was very pleased his Cabinet colleagues had agreed to provide £25 million to allow for the reopening of the Farm Investment Schemes, which would bring to £36.5 million the total funding available for those measures next year.
The reintroduction of the Control of Farmyard Pollution and the Dairy Hygiene Schemes had been sought by the farming organisations. They had been suspended because of over-subscription and previous administrations had run out of funding for them.
He said the provision of £2 million to help young farmers get started was an investment in the future of agriculture, and this was linked to the 21 per cent increase in the funding for the Early Retirement Scheme.
The allocation of £111 million for headage payments to farmers in disadvantaged areas would benefit about 100,000 farmers. The size of this allocation reflected the fact that the bulk of structural fund money was allocated in the earlier years of the current round of structural funding.
There was also an additional £21 million provided for the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) which brought the total allocation to £176 million.
Mr Walsh said he was continuing to consult with his Cabinet colleagues, Mr McCreevy and Mr Dermot Ahern, on ways of finding a method of helping low-income farmers.
The Estimate provided £42 million for the bovine TB eradication scheme, an increase of 18 per cent, and £5.5 million for costs involving the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Processing Industry, a 43 per cent decrease.
Reaction from the farm organisations to the Estimate was muted and mixed, with the Irish Farmers' Association warning that the headage provision was totally inadequate.
"There is absolutely no provision for increased headage in the Estimates, despite our numerous demands. The Government will have to think again in light of the protests of 40,000 farmers in Dublin a fortnight ago," said Mr Tom Parlon, the IFA president.
Mr Parlon added that some of the money provided for the reopening of the agri-environmental schemes would be needed to clear the backlog of applicants.
He was also critical of the allocation for helping young farmers and said £2 million would assist only 360 young farmers at a time when young people were turning their backs on farming.
Mr Parlon did, however, welcome the additional money for the REPS scheme and the additional £19 million in the estimates for the LEADER and Interreg development funds.
The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society welcomed the additional funding to reopen the Control of Farmyard Pollution Scheme and the Dairy Hygiene Scheme.
The Drystock Farmers' Association also welcomed the finance for the return of the schemes but said the provision of only £6.5 million for the National Beef Assurance Scheme was short of expectations.
The lack of funding for drystock farmers was a very worrying aspect of the estimates, said the association's chairman, Mr Albert Thompson.