Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection
Impact of Means Testing on Farm Assist and Other Social Welfare Schemes: Discussion
Mr. Hugh Farrell:
On that point, it stands out that nobody contacts anyone offering assistance to it. If we were working in a shop and we were paid under the minimum wage, there would be alarm bells ringing in every direction. There is Revenue and returns are going back to it from every farm and everywhere else. It alone should be ringing bells and saying what is on offer. It should be combined with it to signal that back to the relevant parties and make people avail of it. We are the forgotten group, as we always are as far as we are concerned, for the simple reason, as I mentioned previously, that if we were in any other job, the minimum wage would kick in straight away or else the employee is in trouble. We are self-employed producing food for very little money. We have no market price. We have to take what we are getting, which is a bad way to market anything. No business stands on that ground. This is where, through Revenue or some other identified sources like that, they should be coming back on people or do a survey automatically of farmers at different stages in the year that triggers that off. That should be run off.
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