Farm assist partnership anomaly
Deputy Moynihan raised an anomaly in farm assist rules affecting farm partnerships when one partner is incapacitated. The Minister said it was a scheme condition rather than an anomaly, but she would review the rules and reply later that day.
There are three Deputies remaining. I will take them if we can do each question in 30 seconds. I call Deputy Michael Moynihan.
Comment on this
This is within the remit of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty. There is an anomaly in the system of farm assist and social welfare payments. I refer to farmers who have set up a partnership. The declining health, because of one disease or another, and resultant incapacity of one of the partners to sign off can block the other partner from getting farm assist. Low-income farmers are mentioned in A Programme for a Partnership Government but there should be something done in the regulations within the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. These people comply with all of the regulations on income and everything else but it is a partnership and the herd number is in both of their names. The Minister might look at it for me.
Comment on this
What Deputy Michael Moynihan might call an anomaly is something that we call a condition of application to the scheme. I am not 100% familiar with the anomaly mentioned so I will look at the conditions of the farm assist scheme and respond to Deputy Moynihan later today.