Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Hardship issues are not considered within the European Commission or the Union. We try to facilitate hardship issues as best we can. As much medical information as possible must be put forward and it must be such that the person is not physically in a position to carry out a farming enterprise within the reference year. That is the problem. Someone could break a leg but still be able to farm.

All of us in the farming fraternity must address the issue of depression. Unfortunately, depression is very difficult to deal with from a clinical point of view but if additional information from a psychiatrist were part of the appeals process, I would hope that would support the applicant. I appreciate that from a clinical viewpoint it is very difficult to determine whether depression would restrict a person, within the reference years, in their farming practice.

Written answers follow Adjournment Debate.

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