farming

Hardship early retirement cases must be resolved - IFA

IFA Rural Development Chairman Tom Turley has called for an immediate resolution to the problems, which are holding up the processing of hardship applications under the Early Retirement Scheme.

Mr. Turley said that last September the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith re-opened the ERS for the hardship cases that were locked out following the October 2008 Budget decision to suspend the scheme. By the end of October 2009 expiry date, around 170 hardship cases had applied, yet no file has been processed for payment by the Department of Agriculture. These retiring farmers in many cases are suffering severe financial hardship as their lands have been transferred.

The IFA Rural Development Chairman said it would appear that around one-third of the cases relate to Category A transferees, which involves the transfer or lease of land from the ERS applicant to young farmers who were also applying for the Installation Aid. As the Installation Aid has also been suspended, the ERS cases are not being dealt with due to this technical issue.

Mr. Turley said that whatever technical difficulty exists, the ERS hardship cases must be resolved and this should include the re-opening of the Installation Aid for the young farmers who were also locked out due to the Government Budget decision.

The Rural Development Chairman said that the Minister For Agriculture Brendan Smith must consider the re-opening of both the ERS and Installation Aid, as these schemes are essential to the restructuring of Irish agriculture.

The suspension of both schemes in October 2008 has dealt a major blow to the succession plans of many farm families throughout the country.