I thank the Minister of State for his presence while regretting that the Minister himself could not be here. I should like permission to share my time with Deputy Avril Doyle.
Adjournment Debate - Grants Application Deadline.
I am sure that is satisfactory and agreed.
These last few weeks all of us will have witnessed the presence of members of the United Farmers Association protesting at the gates of Leinster House. These men will have left their farms and families in the west and stood outside this House for a principle in which they firmly believe, that is their absolute refusal to submit an RSI or pension number of premium and sheep headage payments in excess of £500 per annum. Though the closing date for the submission of these forms is Monday next, 28 February, a small minority only of UFA members have so far submitted completed application forms. Failure to return the completed forms in time could well spell economic ruin and disaster for many small-time sheep farming families, primarily in the west, but particularly in County Donegal where there are well over 5,000 such families.
I believe the principle for which members of the UFA are fighting is a just one in that none of them could survive on the meagre and minuscule income they derive from their farming activities. Most of them are upholding a traditional way of life without any hope of gaining alternative employment in industry or other economic activity. Requesting such a group, merely at subsistence level, to submit a tax number is an extremely daft proposal. None of these people is objecting to paying their just taxes but none has a taxable income from farming and they simply perceive this latest proposal as another layer of bureaucratic red tape.
At this eleventh hour, on behalf of all farmers in severely disadvantaged areas who are in the depths of uncertainty as to whether they should apply — and I hope they do apply — I would ask the Minister, as a first step, to extend the latest date for receipt of completed application forms by a week or two. A precedent for doing so already exists. I am not asking for anything new in that I understand that such submission dates were often extended heretofore. Such extension would give us all breathing space in which to work out an acceptable solution to this problem, on which my colleague, Deputy Doyle will have a few constructive suggestions.
I will do my best within the two minutes remaining to me to do justice to a very serious issue, one that affects mainly farmers below subsistence level in terms of farming alone, who are dependent on our social welfare system for existence and to remain on the land. We need them to remain as custodians of the land of Ireland. I do not have to repeat the figures of the numbers migrating from the land in each generation; in 20 years there has been a 40 per cent decline in our rural population.
Perhaps the Minister of State could raise with his colleague, the Minister for Finance, the possibility of extending the PRSI exemption threshold to at least £2,300, £3,000, if possible per annum. I pick the figures of £2,300 per annum because that represents £7.50 a day, six days a week, for 52 weeks of the year, the amount anyone on social welfare is allowed to earn without affecting their entitlement.
I should like these farmers treated as everyone else is treated. If the Minister would allow them that exemption threshold, effectively allowed others under the social welfare code, it would ensure equity. For example, if a husband is receiving social welfare assistance for a wife and two children, the wife can earn up to £45 per week without affecting her husband's entitlement to social welfare for his family. I should like the same principle applied to farmers who are dependent on income support from social welfare to remain on small farms, particularly in extremely disadvantaged areas.
The Monday deadline faces us. I ask the Minister to extend it, not to disqualify these farmers from headage payments because their applications will be submitted late. They have not got PRSI numbers and they are nervous of getting into the system, fearing that it will affect their social welfare payments. They feel there is a hidden agenda there. If they could have assurances that they could earn in a year, from their sheep production, at least £2,300, which any other family on social welfare would be allowed to earn without affecting their social welfare payments, we could overcome the impasse prevailing.
I must draw the Minister's attention to the urgency of this matter. Attention must be directed to this problem today and tomorrow since next Monday is the deadline for the premium applications. I would ask the Minister to devise a formula to allow the very people who need to remain on our land in the most remote areas to find a way around this problem, ensuring that their social welfare payments will not be affected in addition to allowing them to obtain the premiums to which they are entitled, up to £2,300.
The resolution of this problem is in the Government's court. All of us in this House would agree that this sector of the community, disadvantaged by where they live, should be allowed to remain on the land in rural Ireland. I would ask the Minister to help them.
I avail of this opportunity to congratulate Deputy Doyle on her appointment as the Fine Gael spokesperson on agriculture. I am sure she will make very valuable contributions and I look forward to forthcoming debates on the subject.
Thank you.
I thank Deputy McGinley for having brought this matter before the House which seems to be of particular importance in the Donegal area. I met some people from Donegal this day week, at the request of Senator Seán Maloney. Deputies Gallagher and Blaney have also made representations to me on the matter. I welcome this opportunity to put the record straight.
Following a number of representations from the main farming organisations it was decided to bring forward the application period under the ewe premium and sheep headage schemes this year. This earlier application period and its shorter duration will facilitate early lamb producers, allowing the more orderly disposal of cull ewes. The 100-day retention period in the ewe premium scheme — which runs from the closing date — will end on 8 June 1994. Since the retention period is determined by the closing date, any change in the closing date would have implications for the retention period. In addition, now that the applications forms, terms and conditions are with the farmers the changing of the closing date would confuse matters. I do not believe that it would be in the interests of farmers generally to extend the closing date.
On the question of tax clearance procedures for applicants under the disadvantaged areas headage schemes following discussions between farm organisations and Government Ministers, it was agreed in March 1992 that RSI numbers would not be required for disadvantaged areas headage payments until the beginning of January 1994.
From January 1994 farmers applying for disadvantaged areas headage payments which, in total, amount to between £500 and £5,000 must state the following on their applications form: the RSI number issued to them for tax purposes; the tax office dealing with their tax affairs and that to the best of their knowledge, their tax affairs are in order. Farmers in receipt of a means tested social welfare payment and who, accordingly, have no tax liability will simply have to quote the RSI number associated with their means tested social welfare payment.
In the rare event of applications for headage payments totalling £5,000 or more in any one calendar year, farmers are required to supply a tax clearance certificate from the Collector-General with their headage applications.
My Department wrote to all farmers in the disadvantaged areas in December last giving details of this new arrangement.
Applications for disadvantaged areas headage payments to the value of between £500 and £5,000 cannot be processed without an RSI number. Similarly applications for disadvantaged areas headage payments in excess of £5,000 cannot be processed without a tax clearance certificate.
It is in farmers' interests to submit the required RSI and tax clearance details with their applications as this will speed up processing. It is even more important, however, that farmers should submit their applications by the closing date of 28 February to avoid penalties. For this reason all farmers should submit their applications by 28 February even if the RSI number and tax clearance details have to be submitted later.