DEAR SIR: Minister Creed should, without delay, review the stamp duty terms with the Minister for Finance. Farmland should be classified in a separate category to commercial and development property.

Fine Gael were guaranteed lifelong support from the farming community, with new long-awaited Fair Deal terms.

However, they have totally ruined that and the Minister for Agriculture has turned his back on the farm communities. The rise in stamp duty will prevent many farm sales and set severe restrictions on farmers who desperately need to sell land.

It has cost us severe financial, physical and mental distress to maintain our mother in nursing home care, while waiting over one and a half years for revised Fair Deal terms.

We could not apply for the deal with the existing terms. We feared we would have to be selling land every few years to pay the annual land asset levy for the deal.

All our savings are gone paying for the nursing home. It is with much regret that some farmland has to be sold and now we are stopped in our tracks yet again due to our Minister’s actions with the stamp duty increase.

A Minister for Agriculture, I thought, was meant to support farm families. He has turned his back on farmers and especially smaller farmers. I was filling out the so called “Fair Deal” recently, on my fourth attempt and I had finally decided to send on the form.

I have seen that now, accounts are required as my mother’s name is on the property; yet another barrier while the nursing home bill continues to mount up.

We only get a few thousand a year to keep this small farm merely existing. There should be a simple system, not a complicated one. A general rule cannot be applied to all.

Many farmers in disadvantaged areas throughout the country are just existing and with our situation, the family farm which has been kept going through many difficult times, (and with many happy memories) by my deceased father and his predecessors is now at risk.

Our small farm is about to become a much smaller one. My thoughts are focused on many other farm families in similar situations. Can you refer my concerns to the Minister as I will and I encourage others to do the same. Farming is a lifestyle we were born into and feel proud to continue. It is good for individuals and rural communities’ mental health. However, that can be severely damaged by inconsiderate and unfair regulations. Minister please review.