“Budget 2013 has removed the safety net of the farm assist scheme, which was designed to acknowledge the volatility of farming, by effectively abolishing the scheme in all but name,” claims Denis Naughten TD.
There are 377 Leitrim farmers in receipt of Farm assist, with 433 in County. Roscommon and a further 1137 farm families relying on the payment in County Galway.
Denis Naughten has written to the Social Protection Minister pointing out that her plans to change the means assessment rules of the scheme, fail to taken onto account the volatility of farm prices as experienced this year, and more importantly the dependency of agriculture on weather conditions. The Central Statistics Office’s advance estimate of 2012 farm income shows farm income will be down 10%. The fall is mainly down to higher spending on feed as a result of bad weather this summer and lower farm grant supports. This, coupled with the further changes announced in the Agriculture budget , will mean local farmers will face a far greater proportion of the €110m in cuts, and this comes on top of the cuts that every family in the country will face as a result of the overall budget.
Next spring more local farmers will realise, that they will have to turn to the safety net of the farm assist scheme run by the Department of Social Protection to make ends meet, but they could soon find out that it is abolished, in all but name.
While Minister Coveney’s cuts to the budget are upfront & transparent, including the closure of the Suckler Cow Welfare Scheme, cuts to the sheep grassland payment & the disadvantaged area scheme, the same cannot be said for Minister Burton.
In what was the most underhand cut to agriculture, the Social Protection Minister has effectively abolished the Farm Assist scheme. But what is really frustrating is the fact that the Department is acknowledging the fact that incomes in the fishing industry are vulnerable to variable weather, but no such consideration will be given in future to those working in the agriculture sector.
The OPW in a recent presentation pointed out that incidence of severe summer rainfall locally over the last decade has been more frequent than it has been during any period since the 1940’s, yet this has been ignored by the changes proposed to be introduced by the Social Protection Minister in the Dáil next week.
“It is bizarre to think that the Department of Social Protection allows for a 30% variation in income when it comes to those in the fishing industry to address issues such as weather, yet after one of the worst decades on record when it comes to summer rainfall, the Department is to now make no allowance for such volatility when it comes to farm family incomes” concluded Denis Naughten.
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