Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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1262.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost to applying a means test disregard on all environmental scheme payments received by farm assist claimants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31538/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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1316.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the capital disregard of farm assist to €32,500. [32068/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1262 and 1316 together.

Farm Assist is a statutory means-tested income support specifically for farmers on low incomes. There are approximately 3,700 claims in payment at present. The Government has provided €50.93 million for the scheme in 2024.

Under the Farm Assist means test, income from a range of agri-environmental schemes attracts a disregard of €5,000, which I increased from €2,540 from January 2023, with 50% of the balance assessed as means.

Further to a 2021 review of the means test income disregards for Farm Assist, I significantly expanded the number of agri-environmental schemes that attract this disregard with the addition of 19 schemes, with effect from June 2022, and a further 4 schemes with effect from April 2023.

As recommended by the review, I am committed to continuing to work with my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to identify any additional schemes in Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 that could be considered for inclusion in this list of schemes.

Based on the Department's records of Farm Assist customers who have means from agri-environmental scheme income, it is estimated that the annual cost of disregarding the total amount of income received from the agri-environmental schemes to which the disregard currently applies for current scheme recipients would be up to approximately €200,000 per annum. In addition, there would be additional costs under the the State Pension (Non-contributory) scheme which applies a similar disregard. There may also be an unknown number of people who do not currently qualify for a payment but who would qualify if this measure was introduced.

In line with many other means tested social welfare schemes, the first €20,000 of capital is not assessed in the means test for Farm Assist. Based on the Department's records of Farm Assist customers who have means from capital, it is estimated that increasing the capital disregard to €32,500 would cost up to €700,000 per annum. In addition, there may be an unknown number of people who do not currently qualify for a payment but who would qualify in the event of an increase in the amount of capital that is disregarded.

Any changes to the Farm Assist scheme would have to be considered in a budgetary context, within the scope of the overall resources available for welfare improvements.

I trust this clarifies the position for the deputies.