John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 372: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the percentage of farmers in need of social welfare assistance as part of their livelihood. [24299/04]

John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 377: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of applicants in each of the past three years for the farm assist payment and the number of same who qualified for payment. [24319/04]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 372 and 377 together.

The details of the number of farmers who applied for farm assist since 2001 are as follows:

Statistics on the number of applicants who qualified for a payment are not immediately available. However, I will arrange for this information to be communicated to the Deputies as soon as possible.

At 1 October 2004, 8,567 farmers were in receipt of farm assist. The scheme is designed specifically for farmers on low incomes and replaced the smallholders assistance scheme. The amount paid to each farmer is dependent on a number of factors, for example, family size, whether the spouse-partner is working and any means assessed from all sources. According to the census of agriculture there were 141,342farmholders in 2000.