Farm crisis "not being addressed"

THE "serious crisis of confidence" in Irish farming was not being addressed by the Government, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said last night.

"The difficulties for our farmers are being made worse by currency fluctuations. More export refund cuts are on their way. Our beefy prices are well below European levels. The milk price is soft. Sheep quotas are not being fully taken up. Numbers in farming are continuing to fall rapidly," Mr Ahern said in a debate on farm incomes.

CREDIT unions will be able to lend up to £30,000 to an individual member under the Credit Union Bill approved in the Dail last night.

Mr Pat Rabbitte, Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, proposed an amendment which raised the ceiling for individual loans. He said that for larger credit unions the £30 000 ceiling "will increase with reference to the total assets of the credit union". The largest credit union which bead assets up to £50 million could in theory give loans up to £750,000, he said.

However, he believed another amendment in place would prevent this. This provided that loans for more than five years may not constitute more than 20 per cent of the credit union's loan book".