IFA president Joe Healy and farm family chair Maura Canning met Minister Daly to express their frustration at the slow progress on changes to the scheme’s means-testing rules. According to the IFA, Minister Daly stood by the Government’s commitment to fast-track this issue through a separate amendment.

A 7.5% annual charge currently applies to the value of business assets, including farms, owned by people receiving nursing home care under the scheme. The IFA argues that this threatens the viability of family farms and the current programme for government promises to “remove this discrimination”.

Dealing with this aspect of Fair Deal reform separately appears all the more important, after Minister Daly this Wednesday listed a string of requirements to be satisfied before a full overhaul of the the scheme can take effect.

’Reviews of reviews’

Speaking on RTE Radio 1’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme, Minister Daly said officials in his department were working on a number of “reviews of reviews that have arisen as a result of the review in 2015”.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund is currently reviewing the rates charged by nursing homes under the Fair Deal scheme, to increase “transparency”, Minister Daly said.

He then added: “There’s a value-for-money review that’s due to take place, that hasn’t begun yet.”

They wouldn’t just come into effect in the budget because they would require changes to primary legislation

“These are the issues that we’re looking at and hopefully agree in time for this budget, but they wouldn’t just come into effect in the budget because they would require changes to primary legislation, which would have to go through the houses of the Oireachtas,” Minister Daly said.

In May, the Dáil passed a motion calling for swift reform of the scheme’s means-testing rules and Minister McEntee committed to introducing changes “in the context of Budget 2018”.

“I will prioritise and fast-track changes to the legislation, to deal with the uncertainty that is being felt by farming and business families,” she added at the time.

Read more

Fair Deal reform moving closer

Why you should plan farm transfer early to avoid heavy Fair Deal charges

Legal query: farm at risk from the Fair Deal Scheme

Fair Deal scheme: ‘I would be better off if I had nothing’

Full coverage: Fair Deal scheme