Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

While I appreciate the Minister's reply, it does not reflect the position on the ground. I was advised by a social welfare inspector in the past week that he was not aware that current rather than historical income should be taken into account. For example, I am aware of a young couple with two children who received a farm assist payment of only €6.50 based on their income for last year rather than this year. Is that fair?

Is it fair that a couple whose file was dealt with by the deciding officer was paid €3.61 per week for two weeks only to have the payment withdrawn by the local inspector who refused to accept current rather than past income? Does the Minister realise that if this issue is not addressed, many farming families and self-employed people who were earning good money until last year will face serious problems? One individual who employed ten people until 14 or 15 weeks ago when he encountered financial problems as a result of external factors cannot obtain one cent whereas his ten former workers receive jobseeker's allowance.

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