This article is from page 38 of the 2007-05-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 38 JPG
THE soon to be introduced new Ear- ly Retirement Scheme (ERS) should significantly change the situation for farmers who apply under the joint management rule with particular ref- erence to the state pension, accord- ing to the IFA Rural Development Chairman, Padraic Divilly.
“A joint management application allowed the spouse of the farmer to apply for the ERS even though they did not own the land. This was par-
ticularly relevant where the farmer was older than his/her spouse and, as a result, secured a greater number of years of payment from the scheme,” said Divilly.
“However, when the older farmer qualified for the state pension that amount of money was deducted from the ERS, thus reducing the value of the EU pension.”
Following discussions on the new scheme, transfers of lands to the younger spouse will be allowed be- fore joining the scheme and, as a
result, the deduction of the state pen- sion from the ERS will not arise.
In the old scheme, such arrange- ments were not possible unless they were done prior to the introduction of the scheme.
The IFA Rural Development chair- man said that in ERSI and ERS2 many farmers felt aggrieved that the state pension had an effect on their EU pension and this change in the new scheme will avoid a repeat of this anomaly.
Divilly called on the Agriculture
Minister Mary Coughlan to intro- duce the new scheme without any further delay.
“The scheme negotiated as part of the partnership agreement last Oc- tober involves an annual pension of up to €15,000, and a more flexible arrangement for transferees with a widening of the age limit to qualify the retiring farmer.
“The new scheme must be imple- mented in a more flexible manner than previous schemes,” Divilly con- cluded.