The proposed Fair Deal reform may get a boost from the involvement of Minister for Housing Simon Coveney, who said last week his department was working with its health counterpart on changes to the nursing-home support scheme.

Minister Coveney’s interest in the issue stems from the number of houses left vacant by older people after they enter a nursing home. “If there is a rent, it goes towards the cost of the Fair Deal scheme, so there is no incentive to rent out the house,” he told Newstalk radio.

With Minister Coveney in the picture – fresh from his previous agriculture portfolio and from a farming background himself – farmers will hope that proposals to ease the pressure on farm assets under the scheme’s means-testing rules stand a better chance of adoption.

‘They want everything’

A 70-year-old Co Clare suckler farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted the Irish Farmers Journal this week with another example of the charges imposed on family farms under the Fair Deal scheme.

The farmer had been running the 25ac farm with his brother, who was recently diagnosed with dementia and now needs full-time care.

His pension currently covers the charges for a short-term stay in a public nursing home, but he will soon have to move to a long-term home under the Fair Deal scheme.

“They want his farm, his bank account, everything. I told the nurse, ‘You can’t have that,’” the farmer said.

The monthly charge to be covered by the family would be €2,097/month, which amounts to nearly all of the two brothers’ combined income.

The two brothers’ relatives have moved away and won’t contribute to the costs.

They were offered the option to borrow the costs against the value of the farm, to be repaid after the brother’s death, as offered under Fair Deal rules.

However, the farmer says: “Putting your farm and your house down is as if you never existed.”

His solicitor has advised him to apply to have his brother’s quick-onset dementia recognised as a sudden illness, which limits the duration of charges to assets to three years.

His other hope is to seek help from Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness, who is due to speak at the next IFA county AGM.

‘Can’t put a price on care’

Not all families are unhappy with the scheme, though. Maura, who wishes to keep her last name anonymous, is from a rural family in Co Sligo.

Her father is in the scheme too and, while he did not own a farm, he had a house and savings that he gifted to his children too late to keep them out of the Fair Deal means-testing equation.

“We get a bill for €2,500/month, but we can’t put a price on the care of our parents,” she told the Irish Farmers Journal. She pointed out that applicants to the scheme keep receiving their pension, which covers part of the charges.

She and her brother, who both pay the higher rate of tax, pay for the remaining care costs and claim tax relief on it – effectively recovering 40%.

“We went down the legal route to make sure it is above board,” said Maura.

Meanwhile, her mother, who still lives at home, is eligible for a small household allowance.

All in all, Maura is happy with the scheme. “My father is well cared for. We have real peace of mind,” she said. “If there is no inheritance for us, so be it.”

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Full coverage: Fair Deal Scheme