Cost of living relief top priority for FG Agri/Rural group

Fine Gael farming representatives have stressed the need for continued support for relief schemes to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

On top of this, the FG rural representatives prioritised derelict properties coming back into use and remote working tax arrangements to be top priorities for the 2023 Budget.

The Fine Gael National Agricultural, Food and Rural Development Forum met with the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, to highlight their priorities for Budget 2023.

The delegation was led by former Agriculture Minister Andrew Doyle (Fine Gael – Wicklow) who was accompanied by Pat Deering (FG – Carlow-Kilkenny), Cllr Paula Butterly (Louth) and David Drum (FG – Meath West).

Issues brought to the Finance Minister’s attention were:

• Maintaining the Consanguinity Relief, Young Trained Farmer Relief, Farm Consolidation Relief and Relief for Leases of Land at their current level;
• Improving the awareness and accessibility of the Remote Working Tax Arrangements
• Maintaining the Help to Buy Scheme and consider its expansion to first time buyers taking derelict properties back into use.
• Applying a Zero Vat Rate on defibrillator machines and their parts
• Ensuring that the CAP Budget is ringfenced for existing measures and that additional measures, particularly around incentives to facilitate emissions reduction should come from the Carbon Budget.

Councillor Paula Butterly said, “The delegation raised a variety of key issues and focused on how we can work better for our families, farmers and businesses across rural Ireland as they deal with significant cost of living challenges.

“We’re facing an energy and climate crisis and farmers across Ireland have been incredibly resilient throughout that. We spoke about incentives to encourage farmers to invest in renewable energy and the significance of reducing emissions while maintaining production levels.

“Young farmers were consistently mentioned throughout the discussion in regard to the future viability of the agri-food sector,” Cllr Butterly said.

They also discussed the challenges relating to the school bus service and the need for those issues to be resolved as quickly as possible.