Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps she is taking to encourage the participation of young people in farming; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5623/06]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the measures she intends to take to halt the decline in young farmers coming to the farming industry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5979/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is proposed to take Questions Nos. 55 and 65 together.

Ireland has a greater percentage of younger farmers under 35 years of age, 11%, compared to the EU average of 8%. However, the Government recognises the importance of attracting young farmers into agriculture and has therefore put in place a number of incentives, as outlined below.

Under the installation aid scheme operated by my Department, a grant of €9,523 is available to young farmers who are between the ages of 18 and 35 on the date of set-up and who meet the education and income requirements of the scheme. Expenditure to date under the scheme, since its introduction in 2001, has amounted to €24.3 million.

The milk quota restructuring scheme is the principal means by which dairy farmers can acquire additional milk quota and for many years the scheme has included special provision for qualified young farmers. In the 2005 scheme almost 1,500 young farmers benefited from the provision, which grants young trained milk producers with quotas of less than 350,000 litres an additional allocation from the scheme. The young farmer allocations amounted to almost 25% of the restructuring pool in some areas where there was sufficient demand from qualified applicants.

Since 2003, young trained farmers have been able to acquire quota from the restructuring scheme to set up their own enterprise on the existing family holding provided they formed a registered milk production partnership with their parents. To date, almost 350 new entrant-parent milk production partnerships have been established. The details of the 2006 milk quota restructuring scheme will be announced before the end of March.

A broad range of taxation incentives is in place to facilitate the transfer of farms to young farmers, especially those with agricultural qualifications. Eligible farmers can avail of: 100% stock relief for young trained farmers for up to four years after set-up; 90% agricultural relief on capital acquisitions tax; 100% stamp duty relief on transfers of agricultural land and buildings to young trained farmers; full relief from capital gains tax is available for farmers over 55 years of age who transfer the farm to a child or nephew or niece; capital gains tax retirement relief for farmers over 55 years of age who have owned and farmed the land for the previous ten years. This exempts the transfer of farming assets up to the value of €500,000 from capital gains tax.

There is also a rental income tax exemption for farmers over 40 years of age to lease out land on a long-term basis. Annual relief of €12,000 for leases of five to seven years and €15,000 for leases of more than seven years is available. This encourages land mobility to allow more productive farmers to increase production.

In regard to advisory services, Teagasc offers all farmers access to a wide range of independent professional advisory services. Advisory staff are located in a nationwide network of advisory offices and local training centres. All front-line advisory staff are supported by specialists, researchers and laboratory staff from the Teagasc research and development centres. The services are focused on meeting the needs of a diverse farming community and rural society.

Teagasc provides the full suite of training for young entrants, farmers, rural entrepreneurs and executives-operatives in the food industry. The organisation has a resource of over 200 teachers and trainers operating from nine colleges, local training centres and research centres. More than 10,000 people attend Teagasc training courses each year. All education and training programmes are benchmarked to the best international standards.

Teagasc has recently completed a major review of its provision of agricultural education and training. One of the major planks of the review was to increase the attractiveness of Teagasc training programmes particularly for part-time farmers. The vocational certificate in agriculture is being restructured so as to facilitate the requirements of part-time farmers. The nine months placement has been reduced to three months on-farm placement and nine months placement on the home farm. The home farm placement can be done in conjunction with off-farm working.

In addition to the changes arising from the review, a greater degree of flexibility has been introduced into all Teagasc programmes in recent years. There is now flexibility to transfer from vocational programmes to higher level programmes and students can progress right up to honours degree level if they so wish.