Building deadline puts rural jobs at risk

By Paul Mooney

THE end of year deadline for the Farm Waste Management Scheme will bring the farm construction sector to a halt with thousands of job losses.

This was the message at a joint press conference organised by IFA, the Farm Building Contractors Association and the Irish Concrete Federation.

"It will not be physically possible to adhere to the deadline given the volume of investment being undertaken by farmers and given the recent weather,'' IFA president Padraig Walshe said. "This is the biggest round of investment ever made by Irish farmers. In all, €1.5bn will be invested in 2008 and a further €1bn will be invested in 2009, if flexibility is allowed in the deadline.'' It also should be remembered, he said, that by its nature all farm building work takes place outdoors and much of it in farmyards where day-to-day farmwork continues.

The briefing heard that over 10,500 farmers have completed work under the scheme, some 20,000 are currently building while 8,000 are waiting to start. Many of those yet to start would be dairy farmers who must wait to dry off cows before starting work, Padraig Walshe pointed out. They were not in a position to start last winter as they were awaiting either planning permission or approval by the Department under the scheme.

He said that the economic spin off in rural areas from the huge investment being undertaken by farmers was vital, at a time when other sectors of the economy, particularly general construction, had slowed down. He also noted the IFA was not seeking to allow any further entrants into the scheme, merely a means to allow complete work which had been agreed to and budgeted for by Government. Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, must make a case to Brussels for flexibility, he said.

The chairman of the Farm Buildings Association Bill McEvoy, said it would not be possible for his members to complete all building projects by the 31 December deadline and that there was a danger of legal conflicts arising if grants were withheld. He called for an extension to the deadline, or, at a minimum, extra time for all farmers who had started work by the deadline. He said the volume of work currently underway would take until next September to complete. He noted that the drop out rate by farmers with approval was just 5% indicating that the majority of the 8,000 farmers yet to start work would do so.

Chief executive of the Irish Concrete Federation, Gerry Farrell, warned that building work was providing a lifeline to many concrete manufacturers in rural areas. With house building work expected to slow further in 2009, farm building work would be even more important next year, he warned. Up to 7,000 jobs in this sector could be lost if some measure of flexibility was not agreed for the scheme's deadline, he said.