Mr. Sean Broderick:

The reason the age profile is higher rather than lower is that an awful lot of younger farmers will not depend on a scheme. They have gone back into full-time employment and are farming part time. The older farmers aged in or around their 50s are the people on the schemes and need the schemes more because the chances of them getting back into full-time employment may be far slighter than those of a younger person.

The referral system for Tús is not getting enough referrals. We have lots of work placements in which to place people but the supply of referrals coming through from the Department is inadequate.

As Deputy Kerrane mentioned, many of the people we contact do not want to engage with Tús, although they declare on the initial letter to the Department that they are interested. Really, all we are doing is going in a circle in that respect. There are names coming to us and the people refuse to come out to the scheme or do not engage with us. They revert to the Department and say "Yes" to the next letter. We are really going nowhere.

On the eligibility criteria for the rural social scheme, it would help us quite a lot if they were opened up a little more. There are many people, especially in counties down the western seaboard, who have the niece or nephew of the original herd owner doing the farm work but because the uncle or aunt has not signed over the place to the niece or nephew, they are not eligible for the scheme. They need it but they cannot participate. If the criteria were relaxed a little, more people would be eligible for the rural social scheme.