A plea has been made to the Social Welfare Minister, Mary Hanafin, to adopt a more lenient approach to vetting applicants for the Farm Assist Scheme. It has come from the Fine Gael spokesperson on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Michael Ring, who said farmers were being assisted on last year’s income which bears no comparison to their present financial position because of the economic downturn.
Speaking in the Dáil Deputy Michael Ring said: “Consider the position of farmers who will be seeking farm assist payments. A major milk producer contacted me some days ago and stated he had been producing milk for the past few years and was never on social welfare. He asked to be assessed for a farm assist payment and was told he would have to be assessed on last year’s income. Circumstances have changed in this country so fast that one should no longer carry out a means test based on last year’s income.
“Those days are over. A year ago every business in the country was flying while today they are all in difficulty. Builders, businesses and farmers are in difficulty. I ask the Minister and her officials to adopt a different line on farm assist payments such that accounts from last year or earlier will not be sought. Those days are over. Whatever money the farmers had last year is gone today. I ask the Minister and her officials to talk with the staff and make life easier for farmers who are going through difficult times.
“I refer to farmers who never drew social welfare payments and who depended solely on the land. They are now finding matters difficult because the milk prices they received 20 years ago were higher than those they receive today,” concluded Dep Ring.
