Pay increase is too little, too late for early retirement

The increase in the Early Retirement Pension to a maximum of €15,000 will not be sufficient to restore the shine to the once glittering image of the innovative opportunity for farmers to hand on the operation of their holdings and retire with independent means. Since it was introduced in the ‘90s, at £10,000, the benefit has been unchanged.

An increase of 18% now more than a decade later is seriously short of replacing the erosion by inflation. Apart from the effect lack of indexation has had on the pension, there have been other misgivings by participants who have been very disappointed that their expectations have not been lived up to and others deeply regretting that they ever joined in. The early retirement scheme was the envy of many other sectors when it was introduced, offering farmers in their mid-50s the opportunity to retire on a pension to which they had not directly contributed.

It does not take a professor of mathematics to know that an increase of 18% in the annual pension falls far short of bringing the benefits to parity with the fixed rate set in the mid 90s , when the loss in buying power through inflation is factored in. The farmer qualifying for the maximum pension of £10,000 over a decade ago was considerably better off than the participant receiving €15,000 in 2007.