Cork East Fine Gael TD, David Stanton has highlighted the need for the Government to improve the supports available for farm families, in particular young farmers. CSO figures show that 51% of farmers are aged over 55 years, with 74% of all farmers aged over 45 years
“I am very concerned that the age profile of farmers is increasing year on year. Figures released to me by the Minister for Agriculture show that more than half of our 130,000 farmers are aged over 55 years and three-quarters are aged over 45 years. That means that just one in every 4 people working in farming are younger than 45 years old.
“Agriculture has always been a very important sector of our economy and remains so with farmers making up about 7% of our workforce. Farm numbers have been declining here for decades and unfortunately this trend is continuing, with Teagasc figures recording an average annual decline of 1.7% during the past 10 years.
“One of the main reasons for a decline in people working in farming is the fact that farm incomes are decreasing. In 2002, the National Farm Survey decline of 5.8% in farm income, bringing average income per farm to €14,925. Recent Teagasc figures show that farm incomes fell by 30% last year, and by 40% since 2007. It is not surprising that young people are not entering into farming when you see figures such as these.
“Promises from Fianna Fáil to address the imbalance of power between retailers and food suppliers have so far come to nothing. Fine Gael has produced legislation to outlaw unfair trading practices but the Government has failed to adopt it. Measures to improve competitiveness by cutting business input costs are not on the Government’s agenda. By contrast, Fine Gael has publimeans that just one in every 4 people working in farming are younger than 45 years old.
“Agriculture has always been a very important sector of our economy and remains so with farmers making up about 7% of our workforce. Farm numbers have been declining here for decades and unfortunately this trend is continuing, with Teagasc figures recording an average annual decline of 1.7% during the past 10 years.
“One of the main reasons for a decline in people working in farming is the fact that farm incomes are decreasing. In 2002, the National Farm Survey decline of 5.8% in farm income, bringing average income per farm to €14,925. Recent Teagasc figures show that farm incomes fell by 30% last year, and by 40% since 2007. It is not surprising that young people are not entering into farming when you see figures such as these.
“Promises from Fianna Fáil to address the imbalance of power between retailers and food suppliers have so far come to nothing. Fine Gael has produced legislation to outlaw unfair trading practices but the Government has failed to adopt it. Measures to improve competitiveness by cutting business input costs are not on the Government