Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a great opportunity to review the overall scheme after a lifetime. Much has happened since all these taxation issues were implemented many years ago. As has been pointed out, agriculture plays a key role in the economy, with exports worth €10 billion and growing. I refer to the targets under Food Harvest 2020. The key elements in the presentations are land transfer and income volatility. In my view the fact that we have more farmers in this country who are aged over 80 years than the number aged under 30 years will be a significant issue in the future. That statistic must be reversed in the time period between now and 2020, which may be ambitious but certainly it must happen in the very near future, in order for agriculture to be productive and viable. In the past, agriculture was not regarded as a business but it will need to be so regarded in the future and for that to happen we need to get more young farmers. The child of today to whom Deputy Ferris referred is the farmer of tomorrow and we need to get him or her into the system.

Land transfer is the big issue and the leasing issue has to be addressed. I refer to the IFA proposal which I find interesting. I would welcome more discussion on the proposal to merge income volatility and to encourage lifetime transfer and the tax deposit account issue. I would like more information on that aspect because it is a good idea. No sector in agriculture - it could be beef today and tillage tomorrow or dairying in the year after - will be exempt from volatility. We need to have a system that applies across the board in that regard.

The other issue which needs to be monitored and addressed is the issue of the pay and file dates. Filing is one issue but payment is a serious issue. For example, a request for payment in August prior to the arrival of the single farm payment cheque, the harvest cheque or weanling sales would be a serious issue for income in all farms across the board and payment would not be possible. The issue of stamp duty also needs to be addressed significantly. I suggest the big issues are income volatility and associated matters and incentives for encouraging more younger farmers into the system.