Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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19. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of a review into the farm assist scheme. [47521/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Farm Assist Scheme is an important income support for farmers on low incomes, enabling them to continue to farm while also receiving a State income support. This is important not just for the farmers concerned but for the rural communities in which they live and work. Under the scheme farmers can receive the equivalent of a jobseeker payment and also have access to secondary benefits and employment services. The 2021 Further Revised Estimate provides for expenditure of €61.7 million on the scheme. The scheme is currently supporting just over 5,100 farmers.

While the means test for the Farm Assist scheme is already more generous than that for the Jobseeker Allowance scheme I am very conscious of the importance of sustaining farming activity and supporting farming households in rural communities.

Accordingly, the Government made a commitment in the Programme for Government and in the Rural Development Policy 2021-2025 to review the means assessment disregards for the Farm Assist Scheme. Officials in the Department are finalising this technical review of the means assessment and I expect that the report will be submitted to me shortly for consideration.

Any changes to social welfare supports, including the Farm Assist scheme, will be considered in a budgetary and policy context.