Listen: budget focus on BEAM 2 and earned income tax for IFA

“Our submissions will be built very much around climate change and Brexit,” IFA president Joe Healy said as his members lobbied politicians at a pre-budget meeting on Wednesday.

Healy said that this year’s budget has to take agriculture into account as “there is no sector going to be as badly affected as the agriculture sector coming to the end date of Brexit and the possibility of a no-deal”.

Losses

He said that the IFA’s BEAM submission had shown a €100m loss for farmers on beef prices, between September last year and May this year, when compared to pre-Brexit figures.

“We just did a further exercise is the last few days, comparing people from May to September 2016 to May to September just gone by, and in those 17 weeks, there’s been another €93m lost to Irish farming. That’s about €5.5m a week lost that could be spent in rural areas,” Healy said.

He said this would be what the IFA’s budget submission will be based on and that he would like to see more support for a Beam 2 scheme that includes a suckler cow scheme and an increased payment for sheep up to €30.

Tax

Another key area that the IFA will focus on is on the Earned Income Tax Credit.

“We want a parity between it and the PAYE worker. It’s discrimination against the self-employed really. It must be brought up to €1,650,” said Healy.

Other areas that will be submitted for consideration will be the introduction of green tax credit, where farmers with surplus energy are able to sell back to the grid. Accelerated capital allowance, VAT on non-oral animal medicines, TAMS, pensions and the Fair Deal scheme will all be considered.

“Our submissions will be built very much around climate change and Brexit,” said Healy.

“The areas that we’re highlighting are crucial to rural Ireland.”