KEY EU officials have given a commitment to review the Early Retirement Scheme for farmers. Under the scheme farmers may retire at 55 and collect a pension worth £100,000 over 10 years.
But according to the chairman of the IFA Rural Development Committee, Mr Dermot Leavy, the EU has found major problems in implementing the scheme because of eligibility criteria. Farmers can retire only if their successor expands the farm by 10 per cent financial, legal and, other criteria have created difficulties.
Mr Leavy said the take up of the scheme in Ireland had been good. However, while over 4,000 farmers qualified in the past 21/2 years, major problems existed.
The most difficult of the criteria for Irish farmers has been the enlargement clause, whereby transferees must have land, either through ownership or lease, to qualify.
"Provisions under the retirement scheme led to inflated prices for land and many young farmers have major problems in securing enlargement," he said. One of the main problems was finding eligible transferees, particularly in the west, 65 per cent of the successful recipients were in the Munster and south east area.
In Connacht the take up had been low, he said. "With the high level of part time farming in the west, the younger farmers are reluctant to give up jobs where income is more secure."