Farmers welcome pensions U-turn

THE farming community have warmly welcomed the Government’s decision to reverse controversial plans to cut entitlements and claw back state pension payments from hundreds of elderly farming women.

Minister for Social Protection Eamon O Cuív has been forced into the U-turn after tough lobbying from the farming community, senior citizens and opposition TDs.

More than 250 mainly elderly farm women had been facing ruin by the pension withdrawal, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) had claimed.