830. Deputy Peter Roche asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether his Department has considered additional taxation measures for family farms, including amendments to agricultural relief and retirement relief, to support farm succession in counties such as Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59167/26]

Section 89 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act 2003 (CATCA 2003) provides for a relief from CAT for gifts and inheritances of “agricultural property” where certain conditions are met. Where the relief applies, it operates by reducing the market value of qualifying assets by 90%, such that CAT is payable on the reduced value (after allowing for any unused group threshold amount).

To qualify for the relief, the property comprised in the gift or inheritance must be agricultural property and the person receiving the gift or inheritance (the beneficiary) must qualify as a farmer for the purposes of section 89 CATCA 2003. The farmer test contains two separate tests, the “asset test” and the “active farmer” test.

To the meet the “asset test”, at least 80% of the beneficiary’s assets, after taking the gift or inheritance, must consist of agricultural property. To meet the “active farmer” test, the beneficiary is required to actively farm the agricultural property or lease the property to a person who actively farms the property.

In 2025, CAT Agricultural Relief cost €263 million.

In certain circumstances CAT Business Relief can apply to farms and the tax expenditure for this in 2025 was €628 million.

Relief from Capital Gains Tax (´CGT´) is available under sections 598 and 599 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (´TCA 1997´) to individuals aged 55 years or more on the disposal of qualifying business assets. The relief is commonly referred to as retirement relief, although it is not necessary for the individual to retire to qualify for the relief. Section 599 TCA 1997 provides for retirement relief on a disposal of qualifying business assets by an individual to a child, as defined for the purpose of that provision; section 598 TCA 1997 provides for retirement relief where such assets are disposed of to third parties. As qualifying assets may include those in use in farm trades, retirement relief may be availed of under section 599 TCA 1997 by an individual, aged 55 or more, in respect of the intergenerational transfer of a farm trade – the measure of relief available depends on the date of the transfer, the individual’s age at the date of the transfer and the aggregated value of the assets transferred.

As noted above, section 599 TCA 1997 provides for relief from CGT on the disposal of qualifying business assets to a child, as defined in this section, of the individual or of that individual’s civil partner.

All taxes are kept under review by officials in my department. However, and as the Deputy will appreciate, decisions regarding taxation measures are made in the context of the annual Budget and Finance Bill processes, at the appropriate time, and having regard to the sound management of the public finances and the commitments set out in the Programme for Government. It is a longstanding practice of the Minister for Finance not to comment in advance of the Budget on any tax matters which might be the subject of Budget decisions.