Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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32. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on the urgent need to review changes made in the Budget to the farm assist payment due to the difficult weather conditions and fodder shortages experienced by farmers at present. [25635/13]

Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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58. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider holding off changes in the assessment of farm assistance until at least July 2013; and if she will consider basing the assessment on the tax year 2012 instead of 2011 in view of the farming crisis. [25634/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 32 and 58 together.

The farm assist scheme is based on jobseeker's allowance. It was introduced in 1999 to replace 'Smallholders Unemployment Assistance' for low income farmers, without the requirement to be available for and genuinely seeking work. Farm assist recipients retain all the advantages of the jobseeker's allowance scheme such as retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes.

In Budget 2013 two measures were announced, which were implemented in April 2013, which bring the farm assist scheme into closer alignment with the jobseeker's allowance scheme's treatment of self-employed persons by:

a. Increasing the amount of means from self-employment, which is assessed against the claimant from 85% to 100%; and

b. Discontinuing the means testing disregards for child dependents of claimants.

Farm assist is a flexible payment and any farmer experiencing lower levels of income or cash-flow issues, due for example to bad weather, can ask his/her local social welfare/Intreo office to review the level of means applying to his/her claim.

The assessment of means for the purpose of qualifying for farm assist is not based on accounts from a particular year but is designed to reflect the actual net income and looks at gross income, less any expenses necessarily incurred, from farming. Income and expenditure figures for the preceding year are generally used as an indicator of the expected position in the following year. However, account is taken of any exceptional circumstances so as to ensure that the assessment accurately reflects the current situation. I recently met with a delegation from the Irish Farmers Association on 15th May 2013 to discuss a range of issues, including difficulties arising as a result of fodder shortages and the operation of the farm assist scheme generally.