Vol. 416 No. 2
217 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will give details of the number of young people who entered (a) full-time and (b) part-time farming in each of the last five years; and if he will outline the way in which this compares with the equivalent period ten years ago.
In the absence of an annual census of the agricultural sector, the information which has been requested is not available in the detail required. The results of an agricultural census carried out in 1991 which will provide considerable data on the farming sector are expected to be available in the autumn of this year. The best indication of the number of young people who take up farming on a full-time or part-time basis is to be obtained from a survey of young farm entrants carried out by Teagasc in 1990. This found that of 2,100 people who that year took up farming other than as employees, 63 per cent were school leavers engaging in farming on a full-time basis, 25 per cent were school leavers taking up farming on a part-time basis only and 12 per cent were adults who had been employed outside the farming sector and were at that point entering farming in either a full-time or a part-time capacity.
While there are no comparable statistics available for an equivalent period ten years ago, it is known that there has been a stready move to part-time farming over the past number of years.
