Forestry farmers in Co. Leitrim have been left "swinging in the wind" by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), according to Fianna Fáil councillor for Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, Paddy O'Rourke.

The councillor told Agriland that he was shocked the Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Michael Healy-Rae hasn't visited some of the areas impacted by windfall in Co. Leitrim.

"We had the Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon, three weeks ago and people had a genuine expectation that he would be able to convey the seriousness of this back to Cabinet, but nothing happened as a result as that," O'Rourke said.

"One would have imagined, that when the Minister for Agriculture visited Co. Leitrim, and seen first hand [the damage], there was an expectation that upon his return to Dublin, something would start happening, but no, there doesn’t seem to be anything," he added.

On Tuesday night, February 18, the Irish Forest Owners (IFO) organised a meeting to discuss the steps which need to be taken by forest owners following the devastating impact of Storm Éowyn last month.

Neither Minister Heydon, nor Minister Healy-Rae, was present at the meeting, nor was there any representative from DAFM's forestry division.

"It was disappointing that Michael Healy-Rae or his superior minister didn’t attend. After all the buck ultimately stops with the Minister for Agriculture and his junior," O'Rourke said.

With more weather warnings in place for this weekend (Sunday, February 21), O'Rourke said people in Leitrim are "waiting with bated breath" for Sunday's storm.

The councillor believes, that this weekend's storm will lead to more power outages and damage in the Leitrim area.

"The ESB, whether they didn’t have the authority, or they didn’t have the will, they failed to remove enough timber when they were putting those lines back after the storm a month ago, it’s inevitable that they will come down again," he said.