Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 November 2019

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Finance Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed)

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It would be a trained farmer. We have a relief in place for the young trained farmer. It will be 40 tomorrow. I have no doubt there will be a future Finance Bill debate on increasing it to 45 and then beyond that. We have an age threshold to ensure it is consistent with state aid requirements. I am absolutely certain that if we were to change that to 40, at some point we would be debating the need for that to be increased to 45 or 50. This relief recognises the particular transfers that take place particularly for younger farmers and the desire to give them a degree of support and relief in our tax code.

In these kinds of debates, there is rarely a recognition of the magnitude of support already in place. With stamp duty in particular, despite the magnitude of increase over the past three years, we have an array of reliefs in place that offer a degree of support to the farming community and young farmers to protect them from some of the consequences of these moves.

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