No change to Farm Assist Scheme criteria, Burton tells Dáil
Donegal North-East Fianna Fáil TD Charlie McConalogue had asked Ms Burton if she will consider reversing changes she made to the scheme with respect to income disregards.
He said the changes have had a serious negative affect on the income levels of struggling farming families.
Mr McConalogue also asked Ms Bruton why she is refusing to assess the impact of the changes on those families.
Ms Burton said there were just over 10,300 recipients of Farm Assist at end of December and nearly €99.5m was spent on the scheme in 2013.
She added that Farm Assist is a flexible payment and any farmer experiencing lower levels of income or cash-flow issues can ask the local social welfare office to review the level of means applying to their claim.
The assessment of means for the purpose of qualifying for Farm Assist is designed to reflect the net income from farming.
Income and expenditure figures for the preceding year are generally used as an indicator of the expected position in the following year.
However, account is taken of any exceptional circumstances to ensure that the assessment accurately reflects the current situation.
Ms Burton said that, as part of the normal budget process, all potential budget measures, including any changes to the Farm Assist Scheme, are assessed in terms of their impact.
