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

I want to raise the very important issue of social farming. As the Minister knows, social farming gives an opportunity to people with disabilities to work alongside farmers on family farms one day per week. For instance, in County Kerry we have an excellent social farming model. It is a voluntary project, which makes it sustainable and long-term. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Minister, Deputy Michael Creed, who has always been positive and workmanlike in ensuring we have received funding from the Department for this worthwhile project. People such as Eamon Horgan from Kilgarvan, who is a farmer participating in the scheme, have complimented the Minister at every opportunity for being proactive in ensuring we have had the necessary funding. It works in County Kerry on 19 farms and there are 36 participants. We need further funding to be made available to ensure we will have the money to employ the facilitators to engage in the project and organise it properly.

People who started in the early stages of the project have been going to the same farms for five years and have built up great relationships. They have various types of disabilities but they have built up great relationships with the farmers and their families and neighbours and with the communities to which they go. It is a really worthwhile scheme. The majority of these people are in receipt of a social welfare payment. It is good for the participants in that it improves their self-esteem, builds up their confidence and gives them the life experience of working on a farm, which they might not have an opportunity to do where they are from. To be honest, if we were here for the rest of the day I could not praise the scheme enough. It breaks up isolation for the farmer. There is a win-win for everybody in this. It breaks up a lonely day for the farmers who welcome the young or middle-aged person onto the farms. They can tell stories about what is going on. It is good for the young person who is being educated on the ways of farming.

We want to make sure that the project will be given the finance it needs. The Taoiseach saw it first hand at Project Ireland 2040 in Westport and I know he is aware of the scheme and its benefits. Something I will look to get from the Government is to see where we want to go with the project. In Kerry we want to move from having 19 farms involved to 50 farms. We want to go from having 36 participants to 100 participants. We have people in the county who will be most welcome and would be grateful to be allowed this opportunity to go onto farms in the community and gain experience on them.

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