The clarification that a normal working week is capped at 40 hours for the new changes to targeted agricultural relief was welcome this week. Taking the high levels of paperwork into account, many commercial part-time farmers would put in 20 hours’ farming.

Giving four years to obtain agricultural qualifications as an alternative was also confirmed. Genuine part-time farmers should now quality for the crucial relief.

More interestingly, Minister of Finance Michael Noonan said that the change was not to raise revenue but rather to get as much land in Ireland as possible farmed for commercial purposes – farming for a profit and not hobby farming.