Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 349: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if the age limit for the transferee under the ERS is a State or EU rule; if she will consider the review of such an age limit in the context of the difficulty in obtaining a transferee following the introduction of the SFP; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14273/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The objective of the European Council regulation which governs the current early retirement scheme is structural reform through the provision of a financial incentive to older farmers to retire early to facilitate their replacement by younger farmers who are considered more likely to improve the economic viability of the holding. The regulation sets down minimum requirements that must be met but enables individual member states to set additional conditions considered necessary to meet the objectives of the scheme. In designing the scheme, my Department considered that the focus should be on younger farmers and provided for a sliding upper age limit for prospective transferees starting at 45 years and reducing annually to 40 years for applications received in 2006. This age structure continues to be supported by the representatives of young farmers. I have no plans to change the age limits.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 350: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her Department's views on correspondence from a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary. [14274/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named wrote to me recently about the upper age limit for eligibility as a transferee under the current early retirement scheme. Eligibility as a transferee for applications made under the scheme in 2005 is limited to those farmers aged up to 41 years. The husband of the person whom she wished to make her transferee is 45 years of age and is not now eligible under the scheme.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 351: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if the off-farm income limit of the transferee under the ERS is a State rule or EU rule; if she will consider the removal of this limit in the context of the difficulty in obtaining a transferee following the introduction of the SFP; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14275/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The objective of the European Council regulation which governs the current early retirement scheme is structural reform through the provision of a financial incentive to older farmers to retire early to facilitate their replacement by younger farmers who are considered more likely to improve the economic viability of the holding. The regulation sets down minimum requirements that must be met but enables individual member states to set additional conditions.

The upper off-farm income limit for transferees is not a provision of the EU regulation. It was included in the current scheme to make it more likely that qualifying transferees would be younger farmers, with a greater commitment to farming, who are most likely to remain within the rural community and to continue in farming into the future. If the upper off-farm income limit were removed, it would increase the likelihood of holdings passing to transferees whose primary source of income was from non-farming and possibly urban activity and who would be less likely to retain a commitment to farming in the longer term. Their presence would in turn reduce the amount of land available to young farmers trying to make their future in farming.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 352: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if her officials have considered the recommendations contained in the report of the Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food on the early retirement scheme; if she will implement the recommendations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14360/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I received the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee formally on 7 April. I have asked my officials to consider the recommendations contained in the report, having due regard to the terms and conditions both of the early retirement scheme itself and of the European Commission regulations under which both the current and previous schemes were introduced.