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

The case I am making is where a son or a daughter takes over the running of a farm, hoping to keep the farm going and to keep food on the table. If the farm is worth €500,000 and it is assessed, it means the son or daughter will have to pay €35,000 per year for three years. To find that money during the three years is a burden for someone who is trying to keep the farm ticking over. The farm should not be included in the assessment in that kind of a scenario. I feel very strongly about it. There was talk about people with cash reserves or whatever. That is a different story altogether. Where the farm is needed to keep the family going, maybe to keep a mother and other children going, and the young fella running the farm has this bill to pay, it is not fair. In every other scenario only the dwelling house is considered. Why is the dwelling house on its own not assessed in these cases and the farm left out of it when it is providing food on the table for the family? It is to provide for them to keep going and to survive. This is unfair and undemocratic. I have spoken about this several times and I feel very strongly about it.

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