Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Section 4 amends a number of schemes in the agricultural sector. It reduces the number of years that a person has from the date of transfer of the land or farm to qualify as a young trained farmer. Up until now, people had four years to be able to avail of this. It has been reduced to three years. I am interested to see why it has been reduced to three years. The Minister will be aware that in order to qualify as a young trained farmer, one has to complete a course and obtain a green certificate. There are a number of reasons why individuals may not be able to go on the course immediately once the land has been transferred to them. There have been many cases where demand for these courses has outstripped supply so even if individuals were available to do it, they may not be in a position to actually avail of the course. What is the motivation for reducing the term from four years to three years? Is this State aid? Is it something within the Department?

We have a major issue with young people taking up farming. I welcome the extension of this scheme, which is about supporting the transfer from an older farmer to a younger farmer. Over the four years between 2016 and 2020, we have seen a drop-off of more than 5,700 farmers in total. Only 5% of farmers are under the age of 35. We currently have more women farmers over the age of 80 than under the age of 40 who are considered to be actively farming. We need to look at policies all the time to encourage the uptake of young people into the agricultural sector.

Schemes like this are really important. This change makes it more difficult to avail of the scheme by reducing the time threshold from four years to three years. Why is that happening?