Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak here today to raise the unfairness in the fair deal scheme as it is currently being applied to family farms and small family businesses where the owners live in or above the small shop, post office, pub or other similar scenario. Justice delayed is justice denied. The farming community and these small businesses that I am talking about have been discriminated against on a daily basis, by this Government and by previous Governments.

It is criminal what they are doing to the owners of small farms. The ordinary individual is asked to pay 7.5% of his or her family home for three years, that is, 22.5%, but it is an endless amount, 7.5% every year while he is in the nursing home, for the man with a farm, shop or pub. That is totally unfair to the young farmer coming up who is trying to carry on what generations did before him. The fact that, currently, the total value of the farm or shop is assessed when calculating how much these families have to pay means that many families have had to sell or will have to sell the asset from which they generate their income. In most cases family farms have been handed down from generation to generation. Instead of calling it a fair deal, it is actually a lousy deal to take the farm or business off them by this means to pay for the nursing home. The family farm makes a vital contribution to growth and employment in rural towns and villages, forming the backbone of the rural economy. This scheme has a disproportionate and fundamentally unfair impact on low-income farm families and any further dilution of the farm assets could make the farm unviable.

Farmers are different from most people in Ireland in that they are often asset rich and cash poor. Their assets on paper are not an accurate reflection of their ability to pay. It is also common that the family home is centrally located on the farm and if this or part of the farm has to be sold to pay for the nursing home, it would reduce the viability and could mean the whole farm would have to be sold. Many farming families have this genuine worry. As we all know, farmers, almost all working alone, have to work hard. Many finish up in very bad shape and as a result, have to end their days in a nursing home. We are asking that 90% of the family farm or business be exempt from calculating what these families have to pay towards the fair deal scheme.

I am asking the Government as well to honour the commitment in the programme for a partnership Government to remove the discrimination against small businesses and family farms. It should introduce a reduced charge on the farm business assets that would remove the uncertainty for farm families and the family employed which protects the future viability of the farm or business asset for future generation. This would help to reduce the time an asset needs to be transferred prior to entering a nursing home from five to three years and provide immediate clarification on the definition of "sudden illness or disability".

I am very worried about what the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, said earlier with regard to protecting the successful operation of the fair deal scheme and ensuring that it continues to afford access to nursing home care in a sustainable way. Surely that does not mean that farmers have to continue paying in the way they have been to date. That is totally and absolutely unfair. I am calling on all the rural Deputies in this House who are asking the farming community for votes, whether they are from Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or no party, to support this motion. I am not so sure about what the Government is proposing and I am worried about the fact it is not supporting our motion today. What we are proposing is fair play for the farming community and the small business owners who have been, and continue to be, discriminated against.

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