Mr. John Keane:

On a succession or an early retirement scheme, we have consistently put forward the concept of an on-farm succession scheme. We recognise that the early retirement scheme has failings concerning older farmers not being allowed to stay farming, but also getting them out of farming earlier was not conducive to their lifestyle or ambitions. We have put forward a proposal to the Department many times about supporting older farmers to step back and to be paid at the rate of minimum wage, which is not an excessive payment for someone with the amount of experience they have, in doing so, while also providing supports through investment support, capital investment support and access to low-cost finance and a suite of tax measures to help young farmers access farming. There are succession schemes in place in other EU member states; ours is largely based on the success of some of those. That is the measure that will drive change in respect of the age profile of the farming population.