Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 136: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the action she is taking to ensure a greater level of farm consolidation is encouraged; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24621/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Developing scale and efficiency is an important component to having a commercial full-time farming sector. The Government has a number of incentives in place that encourage greater levels of land mobility and farm consolidation. These include:

An Early Retirement Scheme pension of up to €13,515 for a period of up to 10 years on farms transferred by gift, sale or lease.

An installation aid grant of €9,520 for young trained farmers.

Capital Gains Tax — Retirement Relief for farmers over 55 years.

A rental income tax exemption of up to €15,000 for farmers over 40 years who lease out land for a period of 7 years or more.

A rental income tax exemption of up to €10,000 for farmers over 40 years who lease out land for a period of 5 to 7 years.

A 90% Agricultural Relief from Capital Acquisitions Tax.

The provision of full Stamp Duty relief for young trained farmers.

A specific measure to deal with the issue of farm consolidation was introduced in Budget 2005 to deal with situations where farmers wish to swap land to reduce the fragmentation of their holdings. In these cases there is Stamp Duty relief available for land swapped for the purpose of farm consolidation.

Such incentives help to improve land mobility through early farm transfer, encouraging leasing and land swaps. These, in turn, help improve the availability of land to farmers who wish to enter farming, allow them to increase the size of their holdings and to improve efficiency through the reduction of farm fragmentation.