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

I am concerned about the Bill. I want to especially thank the Minister of State for bringing the Bill forward and at least we will have a cap. When I hear what Deputy Denis Naughten has come out with, that it will be six years if a couple are named on the deeds, that is not what we signed up to at all. That is bad. Take a farm with the value of €500,000, for example. It would be €7,500 per year per €100,000 so that is €37,500 per year for the young fella or the wife or whoever is trying to fund the person in the nursing home. That is a savage sum of money to come up with and for many it would mean they will lose their farms. They will not be able to hold them.

This Bill was supposed to be about fairness in the context of family farms. It would be way easier altogether if the family farm was not assessed and if, like everywhere else, only the family home was assessed. What is being done is not fair to those with family farms. It should not and need not be so complex. There are provisions that the person taking over the farm or running it cannot lease it. If there are young children and the man gets hurt in an accident or whatever, what is the wife supposed to do with the farm? She is not able to farm it and she might have to mind the young children. Take another scenario. The children could be that bit older and might be in college, which means that third level fees have to be paid. Are we going to insist that one of these youngsters drop out of college to start running the farm? Then, at the same time, he or she would have to try to earn €37,500 per year from a €500,000 farm. You will only get an average farm for €500,000.

With the revelations that are coming out about joining the couples, I am not at all satisfied that this is happening. We are not treating farm families fairly. It should be the same for every applicant or everyone going into a nursing home in that the family home should be assessed, not the farm. The farm is the source of a family's income. Other people have pensions and different things and maybe they have other jobs but it takes a couple and a family to run a farm. One of them might have to go into a nursing home and the other, like I said, would not be able to farm because he or she would have children to mind or the children might need to go college.

I am appealing to the Government to look at this again. It took so long to do this. Questions need to be asked. Since the Government said it was going to bring forward this Bill, people in nursing homes and farmers have been under threat that money would have to be paid back. They have been paying money to nursing homes because I guarantee they would not be in the nursing home if it was not being paid. As a result, there is money owed. These people need to be considered retrospectively. Even going back six years, there are people in nursing homes who we know will lose their farms. I appreciate the Minister of State going at it but the Government has made it more complex by insisting that the land is assessed.

I appreciate that other Members want to get in but I am still concerned about what is happening. It is not a fair deal at all; in fact, it is lousy for some farmers.

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