Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 403: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of full-time farmers in 1998; the number currently engaged in full-time farming; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25973/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The most recent figures available from the Central Statistics Office are for the year 2005 and these show that there were 73,500 farmers whose sole occupation was farming or 56% of the total, this compares with a figure of 49,300 for 1997 (figure for 1998 is not available). Over this period the number of farmers with another either major or subsidiary occupation rose from 49,300 to 58,900.

The trend in recent years has been towards part-time farming and reflects a combination of factors including the increased availability of off-farm employment. Many small-scale producers find that combining farming with off-farm employment is an effective way to ensure their continued viability in farming. At the same time, full-time farmers are looking to the new flexibility offered to them under decoupling to develop and intensify their commercial farm enterprises.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 404: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the extent to which deer farming has expanded or contracted in the past five years; his plans for the future of this industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25974/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Official data on deer farming is available from the Census of Agriculture which is carried out by the Central Statistics Office roughly every ten years. The first and so far only Census of Agriculture that included deer was in June 2000. This stated that there were farmed deer on 266 farms. Teagasc has estimated that the number of farms involved in deer production peaked in the mid 1990s at about 450 and they would estimate that the number currently stands at between 200 and 250.

The structure of deer farming has altered over the last ten years and the number of units has decreased. While there are fewer enterprises now, they are larger, more specialised and moving towards quality assured high value product outlets.