Farm Family Council Report December 2020

Activity since last National Council

IFA met with Minister Butler on the amendment to the Nursing Home Support Scheme Act. The Minister advised that the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee never published their pre-scrutiny report prior to the dissolution of the last Government, which was delaying progress. She stated her intention to write to the Joint Oireachtas Business Committee to get permission advance Bill without report. In parallel additional resources had been allocated to support the Attorney General’s office with the drafting of the Nursing Home Support Scheme (Amendment) Bill. She stated that amendment to the Bill was a priority and hoped to bring it to the Oireachtas in the Spring session.   

The National Public Health Emergency Team on Tuesday, 23^rd October 2020 reported:

• A total of 2,028 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland. 
• A total of 70,930 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland, 226new cases were confirmed on the 23^rd November 2020. 
• The COVID-19 Dashboard provides the most up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community. 
• The following is an update on the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). 

	No. of people in receipt PUP(24th November)	No. of people in receipt of PUP (5th May)
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, Mining & Quarrying	4,412	8,600

• The number of people that closed PUP is as follows: 

	No. that closed PUP(24th November)	No. that closed PUP (17th November)
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, Mining & Quarrying	45	36

• From 17^th September 2020 until 31^st January 2021 the COVID-19 PUP will be paid at three rates, if you earned: 
  • €300 per week or more – the rate is €300 per week
  • between €200 and €300 per week – the rate is €250 per week
• A farmer must close their claim for the PUP payment on the actual date that they start to trade or go back to work. To stop payment you can either by contacting DEASP Income Support Helpline for COVID-19 on 1890 800 024 or online by clickinghere. 
• Teagasc has undertaken research to look at the Implications of Covid-19 for farmers, to read research paper here. 
• The following updates relate to Health and Safety: 
• There have been 16 farm fatalities officially recorded by HSA to date. To keep up to date on farm fatalities click here.
• Ireland entered Level 5 restrictions on Wednesday 23^rd October until Tuesday 1^st December. Full list of restrictions are available to here.
• IFA Farm Business Skillnet hosted two resilience training workshops for farmers during October. The resilience training was provided by Richard Burke, Resilience Matters. 
• A sub-group of the Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee (FSPAC) met to discuss proposal to develop a Safe Farm scheme. 
• IFA made an online submission to the public consultation on the development of the Government’s Road Strategy 2021 – 2030. Since the first strategy was published in 1998 the number of deaths on Irish roads have fallen from 458 in 1998 to 140 in 2019

• The new Healthy Ireland ‘Keep Well’ campaign is a cross-Government wellness campaign launched by An Taoiseach. The aim of the campaign is resilience in the months ahead, as we look towards living with COVID-19 in the winter months. The campaign, funded by Sláintecare and led on by Healthy Ireland, involves a wide range of supports for this time – across sports, creativity, connectedness, eating and community outreach. For more information and resources click here.
• The HSE National Safeguarding Office Annual Report was published and reported 12,000 abuse concern cases in 2019. Research was carried out by RED C on behalf of Safeguarding Ireland found that almost a quarter of people (23%) would not know who to report adult abuse to if they or someone they knew was a victim. For information on how to report and who to report to click here.

Upcoming issues

• National Farm Family & Social Affairs committee meeting was planned for Thursday, 3^rd December. 
• Maintain pressure on Minister Butler to progress amendment to Fair Deal legislation. 

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Caroline Farrell – Chair

Geraldine O’Sullivan – Executive