‘You’re forcing farmers who are working hard off their own land’ — meet the North Dublin vegetable growers forced to pay up to €60k in tax, or sell their farms
Three farmers in Rush fear that Ireland will have to resort to imports with farmers like themselves being forced to sell their family land or pay very expensive taxes in 2025
Alan Harford says, 'If we’re forced to sell, that’ll be us gone and out of the equation'. Photo: Frank McGrath
Three vegetable farmers in Rush, Co Dublin, have spoken out about how the new Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) that has come into effect this year will leave them liable to pay an estimated €18,000, €30,000 and €60,000 in tax in 2025 or sell their land that was handed down to them over generations.
“We’ve had this land in our family for four generations now,” says Alan Harford. “It’s a small vegetable farm that my grandfather started working on many years ago. I have two younger children coming up now who are going to agricultural college, who want to go into the family business.”
