20th March 2015

ICSA president Patrick Kent has said that while today’s confirmation of the opening of the National Reserve for so-called ‘old young farmers’ is very welcome, there is still a category of younger farmers who are excluded.

“Today’s announcement is a good one for young farmers who started farming in 2008 and 2009, but there is still a category of young farmers who have been excluded from any entitlements,” said Mr. Kent. “There is a sizeable cohort of farmers who started out before October 2008 and are still under 40 and who didn’t have the chance to build up good entitlements between 2000 and 2002.”

“We are not talking about people just looking for easy entitlements – these are industrious young farmers who have built up an enterprise and have a track record of hard work. They cannot simply be left out in the cold while everyone else is catered for, and ICSA is calling on the Minister to address this anomaly.”