Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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40. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider reversing the changes made to farm assist with respect to income disregards, in view of the fact it has had a serious negative effect on the income levels of already struggling farming families; if he will carry out an analysis to assess the impact the changes have made on those families; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28740/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The farm assist scheme provides support for farmers on low incomes and is similar to jobseeker’s allowance. Farm assist recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. The 2016 Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of €85 million on the farm assist scheme.

Changes introduced in Budgets 2012 and 2013 were introduced to the farm assist scheme, which increased the assessment of means from 70% to 100%. Consequently as a result of this change recipients with higher means faced a reduction in their farm assist payments. However, farm families with the lowest income were least impacted by these changes as the headline rates of farm assist were maintained.

Farm assist customers can continue to benefit from payments received under the Agri-Environment Options Scheme, the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme or the National Parks and Wildlife Service Farm Plan Scheme as they are assessed separately from other farm income. Farm Assist remains 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 INTREO office to review the level of means applying to his/her claim.

The Programme for Government contains the commitment to undertake a "Review of the Farm Assist Scheme, recognising the challenges facing farmers on low incomes". This review has now been completed and will inform any changes to the farm assist scheme. Any changes will be considered in the context of Budget 2017 subject to the overall budgetary context.