Families with a farming member in the Fair Deal scheme will closely watch Oireachtas debates, after the Government introduced draft legislation on Tuesday to reduce their nursing home charges after three years.
Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Jim Daly’s bill sets two conditions for the relief to apply:
The farmer entering a nursing home must appoint a family successor who commits to farming for the next six years.The family successor must have been working on the farm regularly for “a substantial part of his or her working day” for three out of the five years prior to their relative entering the nursing home.Unless these conditions are met, the annual 7.5% charge on the value of the farm will continue as long as the original farmer remains in care.
IFA farm family chair Caroline Farrell welcomed “progress” and but said the relief should also apply to farms that could not support the successor before their parent went into care, and in situations where land has been temporarily leased out.
“If I went into a nursing home and my son was in Australia, he may come home later but the land would be leased in the meantime,” she said.
Farrell hoped the Oireachtas would pass the legislation by the end of this year, but said the relief should apply from the date the Government first approved it in principle last July.
ICMSA deputy president Lorcan McCabe said he would seek a review of the five-year lookback and the recognition of force majeure situations.
Read more
Government approves Fair Deal reform bill – with strict succession conditions
Watch and listen: farmers protest against 'Unfair Deal'
Families with a farming member in the Fair Deal scheme will closely watch Oireachtas debates, after the Government introduced draft legislation on Tuesday to reduce their nursing home charges after three years.
Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Jim Daly’s bill sets two conditions for the relief to apply:
The farmer entering a nursing home must appoint a family successor who commits to farming for the next six years.The family successor must have been working on the farm regularly for “a substantial part of his or her working day” for three out of the five years prior to their relative entering the nursing home.Unless these conditions are met, the annual 7.5% charge on the value of the farm will continue as long as the original farmer remains in care.
IFA farm family chair Caroline Farrell welcomed “progress” and but said the relief should also apply to farms that could not support the successor before their parent went into care, and in situations where land has been temporarily leased out.
“If I went into a nursing home and my son was in Australia, he may come home later but the land would be leased in the meantime,” she said.
Farrell hoped the Oireachtas would pass the legislation by the end of this year, but said the relief should apply from the date the Government first approved it in principle last July.
ICMSA deputy president Lorcan McCabe said he would seek a review of the five-year lookback and the recognition of force majeure situations.
Read more
Government approves Fair Deal reform bill – with strict succession conditions
Watch and listen: farmers protest against 'Unfair Deal'
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: