Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

Very clearly there is not the bandwidth in a national budget to deliver very big succession schemes that would run to hundreds of millions of euro but the design of the next CAP is already under way, as is the fighting over the multi-annual financial framework or the overall budget for that area. I spoke earlier about how I funded a locally-led initiative in Mayo in my previous role as a Minister of State. The Béal Átha na Muice Project, which was based out of Swinford, identified farm families and 30 local families signed up to this scheme, 15 of which had no succession plan in place at all. In the review afterwards of how they were handheld and supported through that process of dealing with a solicitor, a tax adviser, a counsellor, consultants and everybody else, it emerged the fear they had beforehand was greatly lifted when they spoke to the tax adviser. They realised it would be terrible to have a crisis where somebody drops dead all of a sudden and there is no plan in place. Taxwise, it would possibly be much worse than if a set date had been picked to do the transfer when everybody is trained, we know what people's qualifications are and what their provision for the future is as well. It is about taking the fear out of this and looking at ways we can support that conversation to happen. I do not believe everybody is going to sit around for three years for the opportunity of one grant. This is a life-changing decision and we need to support all the family in that decision.

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