TD: Some farmers trying to manipulate land price by field 'take over'
A Clare TD has told farmers in his county to be on the look out for other farmers allegedly trying to bring down the value of land by encouraging others to put horses and ponies in fields and then placing locks on the gates.
Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe, who is a farmer himself, took to social media to claim that it had been brought to his attention that "a small number" of farmers are "trying to frustrate land sales and drive down prices" be encouraging individuals or groups of individuals to "take over neighbouring fields".
The TD claimed that this is being done to force the effected farmers - who own the land - to sell up, or to drive down the price of land that is for sale by making it a less desirable purchase.
In a social media video, Crowe said: "As farmers we're used to sticking together, we fight campaigns together, whether it be nitrates, or improvements to farm payments, the ACRES [Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme]...we usually work together as a community.
"That working together spirit goes back many generations. You've all heard of that old term 'meitheal'...that spirit in most places still survives and still works so well to this day," the TD added.
"What I want to talk about is the very opposite of meitheal, where farmers turn on each other and make life really difficult for each other.
"I've been told on many occasions over the last few weeks of instances where farmers invite [people] to come in and graze the land of another farm in the locality. They tell them to come, put your horses and ponies in there, put a lock on the gate," Crowe claimed.
He added: "The whole tactic here is to try and intimidate the legal owner of the lands to try to force a sale, or if land is for sale, to try and drive the price down.
"I think that's reprehensible. As a farm community we face many challenges over the years. We've had centuries of occupation of our lands... We had the land league.
"Farmers went to prison over the years standing up for each other and fighting for the rights to have land and to own it without condition," the TD said.
"It's absolutely reprehensible that farmers would be using this tactic to try and frustrate sales, drive down prices, and to bring in [people] with ponies and throwing locks on gates," he aded.
Crowe called on farmers to "stand up for each other in the spirit of meitheal".
"Please report any of this to the gards. I'm a politician and it's useful for me to hear these things, but I have no investigative or enforcement capacity whatsoever. You need to go to the gards.
"Taking off my political hat and putting on my farmers' hat, I know that when I'm at the mart over the coming weeks, and when I'm trying to get some replacement heifers here for my farm, I simply won't be buying from people who are employing that tactic in their locality," he added.
He said the issue is known about in Co. Clare, and he believes the practice is not unique to his county but is going on elsewhere.
"It's not nice, it's not neighbourly, it's not in the spirit of meitheal, it's illegal and please report," the TD said.
