FCI: Recent cold snap shows need for national contractor register
The Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) has said that the recent cold snap has demonstrated the need to develop a national register for contractors.
Last week's Artic conditions saw many contractors and farmers using their machinery and equipment to help in their local areas.
This included assisting householders, ESB Networks, the emergency services, local authorities and the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Register
Michael Moroney, FCI research director, told Agriland that the association has been campaigning for a national register of agricultural and forestry contractors for a number of years now.
He said that such a register would be of "huge value" for farmers, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and for contractors themselves.
"We have our own register put in place whereby we have a lot of details on contractors on a county-by-county basis. We have used that to support emergency services in the past.
"If we look back to 2017 when we had that very heavy snowfall at short notice in March, for example, we were able to mobilise quite a lot of contractors in the whole southeast region," he said.
The FCI held meetings with the department on establishing a national register in December.
"We're hoping that they will continue to work on that as an initiative that will bring a lot of benefits all round. It would be particularly useful in a crisis like we had in the last week," Moroney said.
ESB Networks contacted FCI this week to acknowledge the assistance of contractors during the cold snap.
"We've got a very extensive and active WhatsApp group and we used that to put out a call to contact a particular person in ESB Networks.
"The response to it was tremendous, so much so that they [ESB Networks] have written to us to say they were so impressed with the response, the professionalism, with the way the situation was handled and they looked forward to continuing work into the future," Moroney said.
"The network is there, the professionalism is there within the sector, the skills are there. Many of the contractors would have snow ploughs in the back of their yards, as a contingency.
"For them to ramp up and deliver a service, it doesn't take an effort and they have got the skills to do it. I think it's about having a register in place to give it the strength that it needs into the future," he added.
Contractors
Moroney said that a national register would provide "huge legitimacy and professionalism" to the contracting sector.
He said that developing this database of approved contractors will continue to be a "primary aim" for the FCI.
He added that this move could also allow contractors who are not farmers access to supports which they are currently excluded from, such as the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).
"If it [the register] was under the aegis of the department of agriculture, then there might be an opportunity for a long awaited levelling of the playing field so that contractors could have access to funding support for equipment and updates the same way that farmers do," he said.
