David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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80. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the measures being taken by her Department to support low-income farmers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24565/22]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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85. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will outline the recommendations of her Department in the technical review of the farm assist scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24590/22]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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My questions relate to the technical review of the farm assist scheme, which I understand was finalised last October and which the Minister published in April. It contains a number of interesting recommendations, facts and figures. Will the Minister outline the recommendations? What are her views on them, six months after they were finalised? What action does she intend to take?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 80 and 85 together.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Farm assist is a statutory income support specifically for farmers on low incomes. There are approximately 4,800 claims in payment at present. The Government has provided €53.9 million for the scheme for 2022. The means assessment under farm assist is generous when compared with the means test applied under jobseeker's allowance for other self-employed individuals. Farmers also retain the advantages of jobseekers, such as access to activation programmes.

Further to the commitment in the programme for Government and in the Rural Development Policy 2021-2025, my Department recently reviewed the means assessment disregards for farm assist. The report is available on my Department's website.

One of the key recommendations of the report was to provide for an extensive expansion to the list of agri-environmental schemes that qualify for a disregard. I introduced this measure as part of the Social Welfare Act 2022 and it will be implemented from next month, four months earlier than had been previously announced.

If a farmer is in receipt of one of these grants at the average payment of €2,132, this measure could provide for a weekly increase in his or her farm assist of up to €28.70 depending on individual circumstances.

The other recommendations in the report, which include increases in the capital disregard and income disregarded from off-farm earnings, would have to be considered as part of the budgetary process.

I have also agreed to carry out a review of how income from land leased out by farmers is treated in the means assessments for the State non-contributory pension and the farm assist scheme. This is being progressed within my Department. In addition, budget 2022 introduced a targeted package of social protection supports, including a €5 weekly increase on standard weekly social welfare rates, increases to the qualified child payment rates and the fuel allowance.

I have a list of other schemes that we plan to examine. Apart from the extension to the agri-environmental schemes, the report states that we should consider increasing the daily disregard from off-farm income, increasing the capital disregard, streamlining the approach to depreciation and continue to work with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to identify schemes included in the CAP strategic plan that will yield environmental benefits and could be disregarded under farm assist. We will examine these in the budgetary context. In the most recent budget we provided that all of the different agri-environmental schemes will attract a disregard in the means test. The first €2,540 is disregarded and after that, 50% applies. There are other measures in the report, which I have just listed. Indeed, having looked at the number of farm schemes on the list, I think there are more farm schemes than social welfare schemes. All the other schemes are going to be included in the disregards, including the beef exceptional measure, the beef data scheme, the beef environmental scheme, the dairy beef calf scheme, the results-based environmental scheme, the agri-pilot programme, the sheep welfare scheme, afforestation programme, ash dieback scheme, creation of woodland and public land scheme, the deer tree shelter and deer-hare fencing scheme, the forestry grants, and the premium schemes. There is a lot of them and they are all going to be included; that is the good news.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her response. I welcome the fact that she is bringing forward some of the payments to next month, which will make a difference for some. In respect of the other recommendations she outlined, when does she expect to bring those forward? I acknowledge there are budgetary constraints and so forth but I encourage her to get those on the table.

I ask her to comment on the fact that, in 2011, there were 11,000 recipients of farm assist whereas now there are 4,864 recipients, while the amount being spent on farm assist has dropped from €113 million in 2011 to €53 million now. Is there a reason for that? Is it that farmers are better off now, which is why people have dropped out of the scheme? We know that, in the main, an ageing group of smallholders is availing of the farm assist scheme. Given that the Teagasc national farm survey report of 2021 found that 33% of the 93,000 farm families are vulnerable and depend on this kind of payment, the statistics in the review that the Minister has published are very interesting.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Currently, approximately 4,800 farmers are in receipt of farm assist, compared with 5,500 in 2020, 6,000 in 2019 and 6,500 in 2018. This is a demand-led scheme and the numbers in receipt of a payment are falling, mainly due to the age profile of the customers. More than 70% of customers are aged 50 and over, more than half of the claimants are aged 55 and over, while 30% are aged 60 and over. I hope that the expansion of the scheme to include a lot of agri-environmental schemes means that more people will qualify. We also need to look at the means test for farm assist because I do not think there is anything more complicated than that test.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Minister's last point. It is extremely complicated and if she could simplify it, that would certainly be very helpful. I again ask her to comment on the fact that the number availing of the scheme between 2011 and 2022 has reduced by almost two thirds. If the Teagasc national farm survey for 2021 is saying that 33% of farms are vulnerable, then there is some mismatch. Either the scheme is too complicated, people do not know about it or the disregards are wrong.

Finally, can the Minister give an estimate of the new farm assist claims that will be submitted if the list of disregards that she mentioned are included?

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The farm assist scheme has brought significant benefits to farmers, including the ongoing entitlement for a family member to participate in the rural social scheme. However, one issue has cropped up in recent times in the context of the farm assist scheme. When some farmers inherit a farm, they inherit the original farmhouse. In some cases, a family member may continue to live in that house rent free and, in other instances, the houses are derelict. The Minister said that she is looking at streamlining the means test for the farm assist payment and, in that context, it is important that no capital value is put on something that is of no material value at all. If there is a house on the farm that a family member, an elderly parent or uncle, for example, lives in, that should be taken into account. There should be a mechanism within the Department to take that into account because that would reflect a lot of situations on the ground.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The other measures I mentioned, including the disregard for off-farm income, the capital disregard, depreciation and so forth, will be considered as part of the budget but obviously, there are constraints there. We definitely need to look at the means test. I never saw anything as complicated in my life, to be honest. I remember the late Seymour Crawford was an expert and a whizzer on them. People come in with a tin box full of receipts, not just for one year but for the previous three or four years and one tries to sift through them. Poor Seymour is not around now but he was a great man for going through those boxes and knowing exactly what they were entitled to. It definitely could be streamlined more and I am happy to look at that and to work with the Deputies on it.