There was no significant appetite to develop a farm retirement scheme during the negotiations for the last Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said.

Speaking at the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) AGM on Thursday, he said that if money was allocated to a farm retirement scheme, then that money would not go to those actively farming.

He said the biggest challenge around a retirement scheme is that those who would avail of it are those who are already pension age or over it, but who are still actively farming and are the main farmer.

“Are we better off paying someone already on pension more or targetting money at someone in [their] 20s or 30s so they can take it over?

“That’s a question we’re going to have to grapple with now as we head into the next CAP,” the Minister said.

Specific fund

In response, a farmer from Mayo told the Minister that if he wants to keep people farming, a specific fund is needed.

“Unless a young farmer gets a farm before he’s 30, he’s gone to Australia or New Zealand, and we’re losing another generation again,” he said.

In his closing address, INHFA president Vincent Roddy said that it is time to look again at a farm retirement scheme.