Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. As he will be well aware, because it has been raised with him on a number of occasions, the consecutive 15% cuts regarding the means disregard in assessing a farmer's eligibility for farm assist had a very real impact on the family income of those who depend on farm assist. I very much welcome this move in the budget and the confirmation from the Minister that it will apply to all existing farm assist recipients. The Minister might clarify further how this will be applied. Will he confirm that it will be a desktop exercise whereby the Department will go through all existing recipients of farm assist? I know they were all asked at the start of this year to confirm that their circumstances had not changed. I am pretty clear that this is what the Minister is saying, but if it is the case that the circumstances of each of these recipients have not changed from last year, will they see increases in their payments from the end of March as a result of the reintroduction of the 30% income disregard?

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