Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

Senator Bradford has pointed out the anomaly and injustice. The Bill as drafted has serious implications for farmers and small business owners. While nobody will end up paying more than the cost of care they receive, the deferred charge in the case of the principal private residence is capped at 15%, 5% for three years, but there is no cap on the deferred charge and other fixed assets such as land, farm buildings, commercial and investment property and small businesses which may not be hugely profitable. The situation could emerge where a person with a very valuable residence would be relatively undercharged. The Bill as drafted does not take into account the sustainability of farms or small businesses and it gives preferential status to principal private residences. This is a concern and there is also concern about the impact of the deferred payment on the viability of farms and small businesses.

The Minister of State introduced some changes on Report and Final Stages in the other House to the cap on farms and small businesses, but Fine Gael does not believe that these address the problem adequately. The Bill states that the three-year cap will not apply unless the person has suffered a sudden illness which caused the person to require care services, but there is no definition of what is considered to be a sudden illness. It may be that the illness is sudden but it may have been there for a long time and the person has only suddenly become aware of it. This issue is unclear in the Bill. It was a relatively late amendment from the Minister of State but I ask her to clarify that matter. The potential cost to people is significant.

The Bill requires the person to prove that a substantial part of the working day of the person requiring care services or his or her partner was regularly and consistently applied to farming the farm or carrying on the relevant business until the onset of the sudden illness or disability. This is a very strict criterion given the current situation in farming, with people sometimes working on farms and in the community. This is a very rigorous assessment.

We have concerns about the impact this will have, the cost to families and the viability of small farms and businesses, given the implications of the legislation and the lack of a cap on these assets.