Mr. Hugh Farrell:

I thank the Chair for letting me back in. I am in agreement with much of what Deputy Ó Cuív said. Many of the facts are straightforward and basic. We may need to look at the 50% and the spouse's income up to a certain level. In general, the reason both parties are working in any house is to keep up the level of income to pay for the house, farm or different things. We cannot think and hope that people will survive just because of being €1,000 over the threshold. It has to be realistic in today's market. Perhaps if they get up to €50,000 or 50% of it because €20,000 is not relevant in today's world. It is not even the minimum wage.

Furthermore, as was said, the land should not be classed as assessable. None of the assets we have are for sale. They are all a part of our machinery for work. Even under the valuation at 15%, price and product all have to be replaced through time so they have to have a valuation to keep the thing going. We would like to see it go back to where the means test is done in such a way as to include the spouse. We have difficulty in some cases where there are issues in homes, due to financial problems or marriage and different things. There has to be simple way around that too. It often hinders it. There has to be some way to end the relationship in those cases.