Written Answers. - Early Retirement Scheme.
Theresa Ahearn
Question:
127
Mrs. T. Ahearn
asked the
Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry
when the early retirement scheme for farmers will be introduced; if he will provide information relating to the scheme; if he will give details regarding the position of farmers over 65 years; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Under EC Regulation No. 2079/92 member states may institute a Community aid scheme for early retirement from farming partly financed by the EC.
The proposals I have made to the EC Commission in relation to the introduction of such a scheme in Ireland provide for: a pension scheme open to farmers between 55 and 66 years of age who retire from farming and transfer their farms by gift, lease or sale to farmers who expand their own holdings, a rate of pension comprising a basic annaul payment of £3,515 plus an annual allowance of £219 per hectare subject to an overall maximum annual pension of £8,771 and payment of the pension for a maximum of ten years but in any event not beyond the retired farmer's 70th birthday.
My proposals envisage a scheme which would apply to farmers who have practised farming for at least ten years immediately prior to giving up farming and who are farming an area of not less than five hectares of agricultural land. Farmers taking over the released land would have to meet certain age requirements and otherwise be suitably qualified. They would be required to expand their total farm areas by 10 per cent and by at least five hectares. Transfer of land to persons or bodies for non-agricultural, forestry or ecological reserve creation would be permissible in certain limited circumstances.
I am proposing that farming transferees would have up to two years to meet the necessary enlargement and educational-skills requirements. This along with the fact that leasing of land is permissible should greatly alleviate difficulties in meeting the enlargement laid down by the EC.
I am asking the EC Commission to show some flexibility in the case of farmers who retired from farming since July of last year and am hopeful that the EC Commission will be able to accept that such farmers, provided they meet the various criteria, will be eligible to apply for pensions under the scheme when it is ultimately agreed by the EC. The scheme would also provide for pension payments to farm workers who lose their employment as a result of a farmer's early retirement.
While I hope that the EC Commission will be able to go along with my proposals for the early retirement scheme, some of the provisions may have to be changed in the context of the normal consultative process between my Department and the Commission. I expect that the scheme will be in operation by late summer.
