Nearly 1,000 families awarded payment under Farm Assist scheme

A TOTAL of 910 farming families have been awarded a payment under the Farm Assist scheme since the start of the year.

The scheme was introduced in 1999 by the Department of Social and Family Affairs to help low-income farmers.

It benefits farm families with children and also provides increased payments to farming couples without children and to single farmers on low income.

Figures released by Minister Éamon O Cuív in a reply to a Dáil question by Labour Party spokesperson on agriculture and food Sean Sherlock show that Galway (86), Mayo (85) Kerry (79) and Cork (76) are the counties with the largest number of recipients.

Waterford (1), Louth and Dublin (three each), Wicklow and Kildare (4 each) and Meath (9) have the lowest.

Mr Sherlock said the fact that 910 farm families have been awarded a payment under the scheme so far this year is proof many of them are living on the margins.

“If the rate of applications were to continue in this vein we will be looking at over 3,000 families in receipt of this payment going into 2011,” he said.

Mr Sherlock said the drop in milk prices has had a huge affect on incomes in this sector.

“I am very concerned that by the time the dairy sector recovers a number of farmers will have chosen to quit the land,” he said.

The Cork East TD said it is vital that Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith goes into the CAP negotiations with this in mind.

“The last thing we want is to see people giving up on farm holdings that have been in their family for generations,” he said

In his Dáil reply, Mr O Cuív said while the means-tested Farm Assist payment is broadly similar to the jobseeker’s allowance scheme, it has a more generous means test – taking into account the specific nature of farming.