Up to 30,000 farm households throughout the State are living below the poverty line, according to a new Combat Poverty Agency report. Of these, 10,000 to 15,000 of the families were depending mainly on farming for their livelihood, the CPA report concludes. About 10,000 low-income farm households are dependent on State transfers. Some 7,000 have an off-farm job as their main source of income.
Speaking after the report was issued at the ploughing championships in Ballacolla, Co Laois, Dr James P. Frawley of the Rural Economy Research Centre at Teagasc, one of its authors, said low-income farms were closely associated with small farms and drystock farm systems.
"Overall, farm poverty has been falling in the late 1990s, reflecting two factors - a recent improvement in off-farm employment opportunities and a long-term decline in the number of farm households."
The CPA chairwoman, Ms Anna Lee, said that while the decline in farm households may be inevitable for those low-income families remaining in agriculture, the situation needed to be urgently addressed. This would have to be done both for the households involved and for the long-term stability of rural communities. Low-income farmers should be encouraged to participate in the Rural Environment Protection Scheme, an up-front payment of £2,000 should be made to the farmers, and a further £3,000 should be paid on an acreage basis up to 100 acres, the report says. An increase in the suckler-cow premiums for the first 10 cows is suggested, and this should be targeted at farm households where the level of off-farm earnings is below a specified level.
Measures should ensure that no low-income farmers lose out under the proposed headage payments, which are now based on acreage rather than on livestock. In addition, it proposes social welfare rates should be paid in line with earnings, that there should be increasing child benefit and a continuation of the Farm Assist Scheme. The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said only 8,000 farm families had applied for the scheme, although nearly double that number were entitled to it. In some cases, he said, pride meant families had not applied.