Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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1596. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost to the Exchequer of a proposal by an organisation (details supplied). [36702/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In line with a commitment in the Programme for Partnership Government, Budget 2017 introduced an enhanced assessment of means for farm assist whereby, since March, 70% of farm income is assessed as means, down from 100%. Additional income disregards were also introduced for claimants with children - €254 of income per annum is disregarded for each of the first two dependent children and €381 per annum disregarded for the third and subsequent children. The cost of this Budget measure was estimated at €8.5 million in 2017 and €13 million in a full year.

The changes introduced in Budget 2017 means that the Farm Assist means test has now reverted to the position which applied prior to Budget 2012.

The means assessment for the Farm Assist scheme, including the current guidelines for determining depreciation of farm equipment and machinery, is detailed on the Departmental website and is available at the following link:

Where farm machinery or equipment is purchased outright, an allowance for depreciation is currently made.

The maximum depreciation allowable is set at a percentage of gross output by type of farming. The relevant percentages are detailed in the following table:

The costs associated with increasing the maximum percentage of depreciation allowable up to 10% are not readily available.

Any changes to the means assessment of the Farm Assist scheme would have to be considered in an overall budgetary and policy context.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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1597. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost to the Exchequer of a proposal by an organisation (details supplied). [36703/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The farm assist scheme was introduced in 1999 to provide income support for low income farmers. It replaced the former smallholders’ unemployment assistance payment. In line with the then existing arrangements for unemployment assistance (including smallholders) and pre-retirement allowance, the income of farm assist recipients was exempt from class S PRSI for self-employed workers. Prior to 2007 recipients of farm assist, who had previously paid Class S social insurance, had the option of paying voluntary contributions to maintain their social insurance record, provided they satisfied the qualifying conditions.

Since 1 January 2007, the exemption from class S PRSI has been removed and those receiving jobseeker’s allowance and farm assist are subject to Class S PRSI as self-employed contributors on their self-employed income, provided their annual income is €5,000 or more.

It is not possible to estimate the cost to the Social Insurance Fund of disregarding periods of time when calculating pension entitlement as the impact of such a disregard is dependent on a number of factors including the age of the individual, the length of the disregard and other social insurance contributions paid by that individual.

Any proposal to introduce a disregard in the calculation entitlement to pension for farm assist recipients would have to be considered in the context of access to such disregards for all other categories of the self-employed and in the wider Budgetary context.