Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Well, 20 hours is 20 hours. There are farms in the west where that time would be hard to justify if one were to farm efficiently. My experience was that part-time farmers in the west sometimes ran their farms a lot more efficiently than those who were full-time because they had the resources to do so. In other words, the ideal way of getting a family income was to have a job off the land and to run the farm well. The provision in the Bill is fine if one has access to good land that needs intensive farming. However, and I have experience in this area, if one is farming efficiently on more marginal land, it may be hard to justify the 20 hours. This means that a very large number of farmers are potentially excluded under the first test. I understand the Minister said that any one of the three tests will suffice, is that correct? The second test is getting an educational qualification. Could the Minster tell me what that qualification is?