Farming must be treated as a business and no longer as a vocation with automatic transfer of land from father to son or daughter. Financial margins are tighter. A farmer almost needs to be an accountant to fill out application forms. Farmers are being put under extreme pressure to make ends meet. Young people are no longer becoming involved in the profession.
One of the most serious issues on which the Minister has failed to act since his appointment is the suspension of installation aid for young farmers. Young people are given no encouragement to take up full-time employment in farming. In 1996 the IDA grant aided 13,319 jobs at a cost of approximately £11,920 per job. Yet the meagre grant of £5,600 to young farmers which was designed to encourage them to choose farming as a career option was cut. How can the Minister for Agriculture and Food expect young people to choose a career in farming with its long hours, 365 days a year in all weathers, variable, unstable income and huge overheads over a stable and well paid Government supported industrial job?
We are reaching the stage where there will be shortages in the agricultural employment sector. This can be seen in rural areas where people are moving to towns and cities to take up well paid jobs leaving rural communities without their valuable young people to work the land. A headline in one national newspaper last month read: "Job Outlook Bright for Youth in Booming Economy". More young people are taking up third level courses, except for one — the certificate courses in farming in our agricultural colleges. For the first time in over ten years these colleges are unable to fill the places on offer because of the Minister's inability to display confidence in the industry and the young farmers through the provision of installation aid and proper support systems.
Fianna Fáil stated in its election manifesto that in Government it would initiate a comprehensive programme of rural development. Judging from the Minister's actions, it is a programme of rural destruction. He will be remembered as the man who killed rural Ireland. I ask him to deliver on his promise and that of Fianna Fáil candidates prior to the general election that installation aid would not be suspended. Talk is cheap and the Minister now has an opportunity to deliver on the promise on which he reneged following the general election. It would be a small step in bringing to an end discrimination against young farmers at the hands of previous Governments, but especially this one. How can the Minister stand over a policy of funding one job to the tune of £11,920 and cutting grant aid for another?
In 1995, 18 per cent of farmers were under 35 years of age, a drop of 2 per cent on the figure for 1993. Teagasc needs to maintain better contact with its green certificate students following completion of the course; it must put a discount scheme in place. It is disgraceful that only £550 is available to a young person to draw up a REPS plan. The enlargement clause in the farmer retirement scheme regulations inhibits young persons wishing to enter the agriculture industry. Should a young person decide to go on to college the State will fund him or her to the tune of £10,000 to £12,000. I appeal to the Minister to immediately reintroduce installation aid and bring forward a comprehensive package to support young farmers through grant aid, tax relief, the restructuring of the farmer retirement scheme and a proper subsidised service from Teagasc and other State agencies.
