Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With the permission of the Acting Chairman, I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 9 and 19 together.

The farm assist scheme provides income support for farmers on low incomes and is similar to jobseeker's allowance. Farm assist recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker's allowance scheme such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. The 2016 Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of €85 million per year on the farm assist scheme.

Changes introduced in budgets 2012 and 2013 brought the farm assist scheme into closer alignment with the jobseeker's allowance scheme's treatment of self-employed people. Farming families with the lowest incomes were the least impacted by these changes as the headline rates of farm assist were maintained.

Farm assist customers continue to receive more beneficial treatment than other self-employed persons as payments received under the agri-environment options scheme, the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service farm plan scheme are assessed separately from other farm income. Farm assist remains a flexible payment and any farmer experiencing lower levels of income or cashflow issues due, for example, to bad weather can ask his or her local Intreo office to review the level of means applying to his or her claim.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to undertake a review of the farm assist scheme, recognising the challenges facing farmers on low incomes. I have asked my officials to review the farm assist scheme from a policy and administrative point of view. This review has commenced and its recommendations will be considered in the context of the budget for 2017, subject to the overall budgetary context. I would very much welcome the views of the Deputy and his party on what changes might be made.

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