Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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69. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year additional cost under the farm assist scheme of reducing the assessment of means from self-employment, including farming, to 85% and reinstating the deductions from income in respect of children which were discontinued in April 2013. [25531/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The farm assist scheme was introduced in 1999 to replace 'Smallholders Unemployment Assistance' for low income farmers, without the requirement to be available for and genuinely seeking work. The 2015 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on the farm assist scheme of €88.7 million and it is expected that an average of 9,400 individuals will be in receipt of this payment each week.

Changes to the scheme in 2013 have brought it into closer alignment with the jobseeker's allowance scheme's treatment of self-employed persons.

In respect of the farm assist scheme, estimates at the time indicated that changing the rate assessment of means from self-employment, including farming, from 100% to 85%; and re- introducing deductions from income for children of €127 per year for each of the first two dependent children and €190.50 per year for each subsequent child; would be approximately €5 million in a full year.