Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the review committed to by the Minister. In case it takes a long time, however, a good initial step would be to reverse the decisions made in budgets 2012 and 2013 to abolish the disregards. I ask the Minister to implement that with immediate effect. The farming community across all sectors of farming, be it dairy, beef, poultry, pigmeat or whatever, are facing a very serious income crisis which has been ongoing for some time. Many small-scale farmers who come to our clinics and are in touch with us weekly have practically no income at present and are in very serious circumstances. They are very anxious to see the farm assist payment brought back at least to the 2011 level because at the time there was a basic income supplement through farm assist that is not available at present. This year has been one of the most difficult for the farming community in many years, and there is a real crisis, particularly among the smaller-scale producers but also the medium and larger producers also. Farm assist can help out the smaller-scale farmers about whom I am very concerned. I appeal to the Minister to deal with this with urgency and reverse the changes made in budgets 2012 and 2013.

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