Mr. Eddie Downey:

It is a huge problem for us from the point of view of transfer of land from one generation to another. There is a fear factor in families of transferring farm land without knowing what will happen as divorce, in particular, and other issues have come into this. What we are looking at is a phased transfer of farm land from one generation to another where the parents and the child enter a contract that over a period of time the farm land would be transferred from one generation to another. During that transfer period, the parents would get a tax incentive in order to make that transfer. This is a very difficult area for families. It is a first attempt deal with this whole area and to create a proper incentive to make those transfers happen. Given that colleges are full and there is an influx of good and well-training young people wanting to come into farming, it is an ideal opportunity to introduce a measure such as this.

Another issue raised was the low level of income of €10,000 to €16,000, in particular on the livestock side, and farm assist.

The level of use of farm assist has dropped but we see an increase in demand for it going forward. Bureaucracy is the biggest problem with it. What is needed is for the assessment to be done on a current-year basis. It is currently done on a prior-year basis, which means that one applies for help next year although the problem arises this year.

There is a lot of movement on GLAS. There is a timeframe for the roll-out of the scheme. Big issues remain to be addressed, including making sure the budget has adequate funding to ensure the GLAS scheme can be rolled out. It is a particularly important one from the point of view of farmers.

A question was asked about the current situation with beef prices. Two things are ongoing in that regard. The number of cattle has eased; therefore, we hope prices will steady and start to rise again. A beef forum has been pulled together. All parties in the beef industry are sitting around the table. It is an opportunity to put this on a firm footing. It has never been done before. We have never had a properly structured beef industry and we see it as being particularly important that the forum is promoted. The Minister must drive it and ensure we have a functioning beef industry going forward in order that farmers can have confidence in it. Processors themselves can see that by working together we will have a future in the industry, but not with the current system, which is purely adversarial.