Key Issues for Low Income Farm Households in West Clare:
 |
The lack of off-farm employment in this West Clare does not allow for farming to become a part-time occupation as it has in other areas. |
| The lack of training, finance and development worker support for the establishment of alternative farm enterprises. |
| Fees charged by farm advisory services exclude low-income farming families. |
| Low-income farming families are not well represented on farming pressure groups and organisations. |
| Gender issue:- |
The family farm in rural Ireland has been passed from one generation of male heirs to the next. Within this structure their female counterparts helped out on the farm and in many cases did, and still do, as much work as men. The family farm is, however, rarely inherited by a female member of the family. The woman does not have the ability to “hold on to the family name” and therefore if she marries, her children would inherit the farm and the family name on the land is lost.