Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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100. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the engagement his Department has had with relevant stakeholders in relation to generational renewal policies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54722/25]

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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The commission on generational renewal in farming has published its report. I ask the Minister what engagement the Department has had with relevant stakeholders on generational renewal policies and whether he will make a statement on the matter.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Burke for raising a critical issue for the future of our sector. The programme for Government prioritises "Supporting inter-generational farm succession". Food Vision 2030, our shared strategy for the agrifood sector, states generational renewal in farming is critically important to ensure the future viability and social sustainability of the Irish agrifood sector and of rural Ireland. There are a number of supports for generational renewal currently available to farmers under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027. These supports are complemented by a suite of strong national taxation measures and access to finance supports, as well as advisory and education and training supports. Farm succession is a complex issue and there are many factors that impact farmers’ decisions. The Commission on Generational Renewal in Farming was established to examine these issues. In the course of this work a public consultation was carried out. As part of this consultation, 31 written submissions were received and the commission subsequently met a number of stakeholders, including the main farming organisations. Further details of the consultation can be found in the published report, which runs to 180 pages.

The commission has produced a thorough analysis and made 31 recommendations across a wide range of areas, including CAP supports, pensions, taxation, access to finance, access to land, collaborative arrangements, advisory services, education and training, gender balance and the overall attractiveness of the sector. An implementation group within my Department will carefully consider these recommendations. This group will continue this collaborative approach and will engage with agricultural stakeholders and the relevant public bodies. Attracting the next generation of farmers is critical to ensure the agrifood sector remains vibrant and sustainable into the future and the analysis provided by the Commission on Generational Renewal in Farming ensures we have a comprehensive, well-considered foundation for future policy on generational renewal.

In my engagement with Commissioner Hansen of DG AGRI, he took a great interest in our report. He wanted to wait to publish his own policy until he saw our point of view and it is an area he has a huge passion for.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. As he will be aware, the report clearly sets out that only something like 4% of farmers are under 35 and 37% are over 65. This means we have a major challenge. It is also about the demands of farming. In dairy farming especially it is a seven-day week and people are on call all the time. There are jobs outside the agricultural sector that are very attractive. Only 3% of CAP supports are going to young farmers and I think one of the recommendations is to push that as far as 8%. That is one simple area. The other issue with the 31 recommendations is the timeframe for trying to deal with that issue. If 37% of farmers are over 65 then within the next five years there will be a far bigger number. We need to make sure we put in a timeframe for the implementation of the report's recommendations.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Yes, and that why we established the interdepartmental group within my Department on its implementation. The implementation piece of this report is so important because ultimately, it is about clear action. Some of these measures require the structure of the next CAP post 2027 to be able to implement. A national budget is not going to deliver the type of succession scheme that would previously always have been in the structure of a CAP. That is not to say there are not a lot of structural things that can be done now. As I said, the commission report recognises families still have these discussions. As for the impediments to generational renewal, there are challenges, in that our next generation is better educated than ever before and people have vastly more opportunities in a country with full employment to generate a good income from off-farm working that may involve fewer hours and less hard work, but there are an awful lot of farmers who want to farm in this area and we have to support them in that transition.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I am a solicitor and if we go back 25 years there was a lot of succession planning, whereas I find the same level of planning is not there now. I am wondering how we can encourage that, talk openly about it and ensure there is a plan in place. In one case, in order to do a proper transfer of land we had to transfer the land to the daughters-in-law because that was the only way we could do proper planning in relation to transfer of land. We are not looking carefully enough about succession planning. There is also a proposal that €25,000 be made available to the retiring farmer. How fast can we put in place some of those measures if we plan them before the next budget?

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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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.