General Election 2020: young farmers say early retirement scheme essential

With election day looming, young farmers are making their minds up about who they will vote for.

Key for many of them will be how the polticians intend to provide and plan for the next generation of farmers.

Here are some of their views.

Tipperary dairy farmer

What do you think the next government should prioritise?

"The next government needs to look after the beef farmer better. The BEAM scheme is ridiculous. Even if you do take on more land, you still have to reduce stock numbers. Schemes in the future need to be more practical.

"There should also be more incentives for farmers to go green and be rewarded for taking that approach. Two farmers in my local area have said if there was an incentive to retire early they would have passed the farms on sooner to their sons.

If there was an incentive to retire early they would have passed the farms on sooner to their sons

"There needs to be an early retirement scheme for farmers and a tax incentive so they can retire earlier. That would be something that would be great if it came back. It would help the age profile in farming. Lads are holding on to the land longer because there is no incentive to pass it on."

How confident are you that the government works for you?

"My confidence would be below average, I thought the last minister for agriculture was very poor. I wouldn’t be massively confident in the government. I will vote, but I will be voting local, because a lot of our local politicians do get a lot done for the area.

"I would be very afraid what the Green Party would do if they get in. Once you leave the Red Cow, a lot of their ideas are not practical, like re-introducing wolves into Ireland. If that is their mindset, God knows how far they will go if they got in.”

What do you think the next government should prioritise?

“This is the first general election where I don’t know where to put my vote. The most important thing for beef is to get the clarity on the pricing.

"I was very disillusioned when all the Fine Gael TDs signed the Mercosur deal. I know we are exporting beef but we have to protect our market. If standards were the same here as they are in Brazil in terms of animal welfare it wouldn’t be so bad, but its’s the fact that the Mercosur countries do not produce their product to Irish standards is what gets me."

This is the first general election where I don’t know where to put my vote

“I am going to vote on 8 February. I would have always voted for Fine Gael but I swore never again after this year.”

Sheep farmer David Harney from Co Galway said he would like to see “more access to grants and a retirement scheme so that farms can be passed on to the next generation at a younger age.”

Harney also thinks that more has to be done for beef and sheep on the base price level to encourage farmers to take up young full-time farming.

Longford dairy farmer Patrick O’Neill also believes that there should be a retirement scheme in place for farmers so that farms can be passed on to the next generation at an earlier age.

According to O’Neill, “a better retirement scheme needs to be put in place. We need to be aware what’s coming down the line and it’s up to us as young farmers to take the lead. Young farmers are more open minded and understand environmental issues better.”

The Early Retirement Scheme for farmers was suspended in 2008.

This was an issue raised by a large number of young farmers as something they would like to see re-introduced by the next government.

Figures from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) show that from 2008-2017, 35% of farm fatalities involved older farmers over the age of 65.

Read more

Macra calls for low cost loans for young farmers

National Reserve to reopen for new entrants and young farmers

Green party leader challenged on nitrates and live exports