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The Government has approved changes to the nursing home charges applicable to farm property under the Fair Deal scheme. News correspondent Thomas Hubert asked Hilda O’Brien how changes to the scheme would benefit her farming family in Co Offaly.

Retailers such as Aldi and Iceland have come under fire recently for selling milk at the discounted rate of €1.30 for two litres. Deputy news editor Odile Evans spoke to Dublin-based liquid milk farmer Pádraig O’Scanaill about the need for retailer accountability.

Low-cost loans for farmers were promised in the budget last October. An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was in Drinagh Co-op last Friday opening a new feed mill and suggested that farmers wanted to wait until after Brexit to have access to the loans, but first he told news correspondent Hannah Quinn-Mulligan about the importance of the Irish border post-Brexit.

Hannah also spoke to Drinagh co-op CEO Joe O’Sullivan about what the new mill would be mean for farmers in the area.

Last year, the HSA carried out over 1,700 health and safety inspections on farms. News correspondent Una Sinnott spoke to HSA inspector Martina Gormley about the most common safety hazards on farms.

Dairy farmer PJ O’Keefe won FBD Young Farmer of the Year 2017, and spoke to news correspondent Hannah Quinn-Mulligan at a Macra na Feirme event in Kilkenny about the need for a rent cap to be placed on land.

News correspondent Barry Cassidy attended an IFA protest in Tralee on Tuesday against the use of compulsory purchase orders to build a greenway in Co Kerry.

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