ICMSA: Unjust to include farmland in means test for college grants

ICMSA president John Comer says it is unjust to include farmland in means tests for third-level college grants when public sector pensions are not assessed.

The dairy leader said farmers will resist any proposals to replace the current income-based model with a new capital assets-based assessment. He said any farmer working a 75-acre farm in a year of low commodity prices would have had zero net income for the year.

“In 2009 you could have farmed 500 acres and still have ended up with no net income at all,” said Mr Comer. “The reported proposals represented a seismic move away from the income of applicants’ families and onto the much less fair basis of perceived assets.”