Covid-19 'has potential to cause extreme hardship' on farms

The newly-formed Government cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 has been called on to implement “a sick pay arrangement” for sole traders to “help mitigate the potential spread of the virus”.

The chairperson of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association’s (ICMSA’s) farm business committee, Shane O’Loughlin, has said: “While most farmers could self-isolate for two weeks and still do their farm work, we have to assume that there will be farmers who contract the virus and are unable to fulfill duties on their farm, such as milking, and will need assistance.”

The ICMSA farm business chairperson said this would have the potential to cause “extreme hardship” on a farm.

He noted that the Government “needs to ensure farmers are able to receive relief to pay someone to cover their duties while out sick from the first day of illness”.

Continuing, O’Loughlin said: “This step would alleviate huge pressure on farmers to keep working through the illness as well as ensuring that food production could continue as normal in the event of the spread of Covid-19.”

He also claimed that there was a question of fundamental fairness “where the state was obliged to try and protect all elements of the national workforce”.

Concluding, he said: “That has to mean the most economically vulnerable element: Sole traders – and within that element – the farmers who literally produced the food that fed the population.”