Mr. Seán Finan:

I will endeavour to answer all the questions. I will then pass over to my colleagues to add anything I may have overlooked.

First, to elaborate for Deputy McConalogue on the education and training places, we undertook a recent young farmers survey which identified that 33% of those surveyed had not completed their agricultural education. There could be a number of reasons for that, one being access. As members know, there was huge demand on the education system as a result of the CAP measures which were announced. We constantly have to work on this issue, which is more pronounced in some parts of the country than in others. For example, we will have to work with local Teagasc organisations on the ground to make sure places are available for young farmers who want to avail of education. Macra na Feirme has played a huge part in education and we are currently rolling out a further education programme through our Macra na Feirme young farmer skillnet programme, which is providing further education to young farmers and giving them the practical skills they need.

On the older young farmer issue, which was raised by a number of speakers, this really comes back to the five-year rule, which we highlighted when the CAP legislation was published. We fully support the plight of the older young farmer, or the young farmer who is beyond five years establishment and who is not entitled to avail of the schemes as other young farmers are. We welcome the commitment in the programme for Government that representations will be made to Europe to find out whether this issue can be addressed. We have no real solution but we are involved with CEJA, the European young farmers council, at a European level. We understand there is flexibility in some member states in terms of the implementation of the five-year rule across both pillars. The Irish Government has decided that the five-year rule will be consistent across both pillars. If this can be looked at with a view to allowing flexibility to be built into Pillar II, whereby some of these young farmers could avail of 60% of TAMS, that might be an option.

We support the plight of these young farmers because it is not right there are two tiers of young farmers. One person might only be commencing farming activity at 37 and getting all the benefits of that through the top-up and the reserve, while another person at the age of 25 might have five years farming done and is no longer eligible for any of the schemes. It does not seem fair. We will be working at a European level to see if anything can be done. We have met with the Department and with Commission officials at an EU level, and we ask the committee to look at this issue, on which we made a presentation here last year also.

A number of committee members spoke about stamp duty relief in regard to the extension up to the age of 40. We have asked for this in order to make it consistent with the young farmer definition that has existed across the EU. We take the point that it might slow down or reduce the transfer but we believe that young farmers will probably be in a better position to avail of this relief between the ages of 35 and 40. While we would be a little concerned that it may slow down the transfer, which is the principle we push in terms of getting more young farmers onto the land, in order to bring consistency to the approach on young farmers, we will be asking for this to be extended to the age of 40.

Deputy Cahill referred to the issue of tax relief for family members. Through our land mobility programme, we have seen many people taking up long-term leasing. That land mobility programme is going from strength to strength and long-term leasing is a major part of it as a result of the tax measures in place. However, as part of that, we feel there should be some means to allow parents to lease their land to sons or daughters, which would encourage more transfers within the family. The reason we have put in that the relief should be for one term of seven years is because we do not want this to be an indefinite arrangement. We want the transfer to happen after a period but this might be the transition period that is required. It would first go into the lease and then, ultimately, result in the transfer of the farm holding.

I have addressed the other issues around the question of the older younger farmer. Senator Lombard referred to the land mobility programme, which, as I said, is going from strength to strength. We have over 500 clients in place and over 200 arrangements in place as part of the programme, which is great to see. The focus of our organisation is always to encourage young farmers.

A speaker mentioned the size of holdings. We are trying to encourage efficiency and improvements at farm level so young farmers are as efficient as possible at the farm gate.

As representatives of young farmers and as a young farm organisation, we work on a lot of the external factors, but we always encourage young farmers to make sure they are as efficient as possible inside the farm gate.

I will hand over to Mr. Dillon to deal with anything I have missed, and if any of our other representatives have anything to contribute they can do so.