Any proposed farmer retirement scheme must allow young people to enter farming in any sector in order to facilitate meaningful generational renewal, according to Macra na Feirme.

The recently published Food Vision Dairy Group draft interim report proposed a voluntary retirement or 'exit scheme' for the dairy sector, in the medium term.

But limiting land use - as part of retirement-scheme conditions - to certain enterprises will only further drive up the costs of land leasing, which is a huge barrier to young farmers who want to enter the sector or grow their family business; and will also serve to lower the value of the land in question, the organisation said.

Macra has, for many years now, been calling for a substantial farmer retirement scheme that has two main deliverables, it said:

“What is needed to support generational renewal across all enterprises is access to land and access to suitable finance to support the development of any and all farm enterprises," said Macra na Feirme national president, John Keane.

“Young farmers require tangible support that will drive an increase in their numbers and, as we have stated before, they need the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to establish a target for the number of active, young farmers in the sector by 2030."