Sinn Féin spokesperson on Agriculture, Claire Kerrane has raised concerns that the payments for fodder lost due to flooding in the Shannon Callows could drag into 2024.
There has been “no firm commitment” from Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue that payments for lost fodder will be made next month, she said.
Deputy Kerrane was speaking after Minister McConalogue said it is his “intention” that payments worth €325/ha for affected farmers will commence in December.
Describing the minister’s comments as “disappointing”, the deputy said that farmers have been suffering from the longest summer flood they have ever experienced.
Deputy Kerrane said that the 230 farmers identified as affected received letters last week and thus she does not see any reason or excuse why payments haven’t been issued yet.
“[Money] has been allocated and I see no reason why this will drag into December and then only a possibility of December, which means it could go into 2024.
“The minister identified the farmers through the new satellite mapping and was obviously very easily able to identify them. I don’t understand why there would be such a long lead-in time,” she said.
Shannon Callows payments
Deputy Kerrane said she understands that farmers affected by the flooding along the river Suck and other tributaries of the Shannon are not included in the support scheme.
An Oireachtas committee meeting earlier this month heard from the Save our Shannon Organisation that, she said, the number of 230 affected farmers cited by the minister was “very low”.
Deputy Kerrane said that her read of the situation is that the minister is “excluding” farmers that have been affected by the flooding on the tributaries, for example, the Little Brosna River.
“Any farmer affected by flooding in the Shannon Callows, be it a tributary or the Shannon itself, should be supported financially for fodder lost and for grazing lost as well,” she said.
While all of these issues need to be addressed, the deputy said that the priority now needs to be issuing those payments to farmers. Adding that there is “no excuse”, she said:
“I don’t see any reason why this would drag on any longer and, as I said, this is summer flooding. It’s not winter flooding. It’s going on since July.”
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) used the Area Monitoring System (AMS) to determine the impacted grassland parcels eligible for support.
To be eligible for the support, the parcels must have been claimed by farmers on their 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) application.