After waiting nearly two and a half years for the Department of Agriculture to develop an aid program, farmers in Leitrim affected by the Shass Mountain bog slide have just five days to accept or abandon a controversial program.
The proposed package, which aims to prevent agricultural use of the land in the future, is capped at €20,000. The land will no longer be eligible for subsidy programs and farmers are expected to maintain the bog slide fencing.
Farmers received written details of the program last Friday 25th November and must confirm that they will participate before close of business tomorrow 30th November.
John O’Donnell, who lost seven acres of his farm to the 2020 bog slide, believes the Department of Agriculture is “rolling over” affected farmers. If he accepts the aid package, Mr O’Donnell will receive a one-off payment of around £1,000 per acre and will be required to maintain fencing off the mudslide indefinitely.
“I am very dissatisfied. People who have little affected land get as much as I do. I thought I was getting maybe €12,000 per hectare myself, but instead we have this,” he said Independent Farming.
“I don’t know what to do with the country. I can’t farm it, I can’t plant it, there’s no more money to be made on this land. I can’t even sell it, who would buy it?
“It’s affecting the rest of my land too, the remaining part of my land isn’t draining properly. The drains back up all the way.
“We are being pushed to make this decision. It’s been two and a half years, we’ve been pressuring them all the time, and the Department of Agriculture hasn’t contacted any of us. Suddenly we have to make a decision in a week.
“It’s like someone bought seven hectares from me for 20,000 euros and I have to tend them myself. All I can do is look at it, I’m sick of looking at it.”
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) have urged the Department of Agriculture to give farmers more time to make decisions.
The INHFA has also called on the Ministry of Agriculture to lobby the European Commission to ensure that affected farmers have access to CAP payments in the future.
“The requirement that the country would no longer be acceptable for GAP payments is unacceptable,” said Patsy Daly, INHFA’s Leitrim Chair.
“Under the new CAP program there is an opportunity to pay for the provision of public goods in the form of environmental or environment-related services. In our opinion, the country should fall under it.”
