IFA President John Bryan has welcomed the decision of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs Eamon O’Cuiv to restore the State Contributory Pension to elderly farm women.

Mr Bryan said, “This swift decision by Eamon O’Cuiv is the mark of a caring Minister who was not prepared to stand over the injustice that had been done to these women whose pensions were taken away in January.” IFA Farm Family Committee Chairwoman Miriam Sherry added that Minister O’Cuiv’s decision once again recognised the lifetime’s work of these women in farming in partnership with their husbands.

Ms Sherry thanked the farm women and IFA officers in County Monaghan and around the country who had lobbied politicians at local level to have their pensions restored. She also acknowledged the unanimous, cross-party support of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs following IFA’s presentation to the Committee last week.