Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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177. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which he is satisfied regarding the future viability of the family farm enterprise, with particular reference to the need to ensure an adequate return in respect of time and investment regardless of the size of the enterprise; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48770/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Teagasc’s National Farm Survey 2012, which represents 79,000 farms, estimated that:

- 38% of farms were economically viable. An economically viable farm is defined as one that has the capacity to pay family labour at the average agricultural wage, and also to provide a 5% return on non-land assets.

- 29% of farms were sustainable. A sustainable farm is not economically viable but it is sustainable due to the presence of off-farm income.

- The remaining 33% of farms were classified as ‘vulnerable’.

Around 60,000 farms are excluded from the National Farm Survey because their standard output is less than €8,000. Most of these farms are small, but many may be sustainable due to off-farm sources of income.

A major focus of Food Harvest 2020 is to improve competitiveness and productivity and initiatives such as the BETTER farm programmes, Dairy Efficiency and the Beef and Sheep Technology Adoption Programmes are helping to increase efficiency and capacity at farm level.