What changes have been made to the Fair Deal nursing home legislation?

Financial contributions based on the value of your farm or small business will be capped at 7.5% for three years – before this, there was no time limit.

The legislation has been approved by Cabinet and it’s hoped will be fully in place by the end of the summer.

I am a farmer who has been in a nursing home for five years. What does this mean for me?

Once the legislation is passed and you have appointed an eligible farm successor, then you will no longer have to make the annual 7.5% financial contribution based on the value of your farm.

Similarly, if you are a farmer and have been in a nursing home for one or two years, you will only pay the 7.5% contribution on the remaining year(s) you are in the nursing home up to the three-year cap.

How do I appoint a family farm successor?

The details are still being working out but Minister Mary Butler has told the Irish Farmers Journal that: “The person in care will have to appoint a family successor who has consistently supplied a substantial part of their working day to the farm or small business for three years out of the previous five years.”

Details include:

  • The successor will have to make a statutory declaration in relation to their normal working time.
  • The successor does not have to be related to the farmer in the nursing home.
  • The successor does not have to have been paid for working on the farm as an employee to prove they were working there.
  • The successor does not have to have been working for three years straight on the farm, just three years across a five year period.