Irish farmers should find it easier to retire in the future following a major amendment to their early retirement scheme.
Since its introduction in 2000 the current early retirement scheme has failed to attract applicants to take up the €13,515 per year pension which was paid for 10 years, half of which came from the EU.
Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan has now raised the off-farm income limit for the farmer taking over the farm and removed the total income limit on the farmer who is retiring.
While nearly 10,000 farmers over 55 joined the first scheme introduced in the mid-1990s, by 2004 fewer than 1,500 had applied for the new scheme which was expected to attract a further 8,000 applicants.
The off-farm income limit for transferees under the scheme was found to be one of the inhibiting factors in attracting applicants and this has now been changed from €25,000 to €40,000.
The Minister has also abolished the income limit exemption for the retiring farmer which existed only in cases where a farm was being transferred definitively to a farm member.
Ms Coughlan said her decision reflected changes in farming and in the wider economy since the scheme was introduced in 2000.
"We need to recognise how widespread part-time farming has become and the vital contribution of off-farm income in supporting viable farm units in many cases.
"The early retirement scheme is a mechanism to promote the earlier hand-over of farms to the next generation, and to do that effectively it has to keep pace with the realities of present-day farming,"she said.
Tommy Cooke, of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association's rural development committee, welcomed the changes because the off-farm limit was unrealistic. "It has prevented numerous farmers from entering the scheme, and it has been an issue on which ICMSA pushed for change over the last number of years."
The change in the income limit was also welcomed by Sinn Féin's Deputy Martin Ferris in so far as it recognised the importance of off-farm employment for many. However, other major issues needed to be addressed, he said.