50% rise in farmers claiming welfare

The number of farmers claiming the industry’s equivalent of the job-seekers’ allowance has increased by more than 50% in the last five years.

There were 11,137 of the country’s farmers — or one in 10 — claiming farm assist, a means-tested income support scheme as of the end of 2012. In 2007, the figure was just over 7,000.

An Irish Farmers Association spokesman blamed the increase on a number of factors.