At least two groups of farmers in Co Laois have banded together and are lobbying to have their land included in the revised disadvantaged areas.

Representatives from both groups attended Friday’s IFA meeting in Carlow on the ongoing ANC review. The farmers are based along the River Barrow and explained that, despite their land being subject to extreme flooding, they have been excluded from disadvantaged areas up until now.

“We were left out because we were adjacent to tillage land,” Henry McLoughlin said. “We fear we’ll be left out again.”

A farmer from another group based on the Barrow said: “We were also left out in previous reviews. We feel very hard done by. We want to have a fair shot this time. My land is under water tonight. But my farm is in six townlands and I feel that classification should come down to the land on the farm itself, not what’s in the district electoral divisions (DED) or townland.”

IFA South Leinster chair James Murphy, who chaired the meeting, stressed to these farmers that the review of disadvantaged areas now under way was examining all farmland, including land that was currently not considered disadvantaged. Presence of tillage land in an area would no longer exclude it from disadvantaged areas status, he said.

IFA rural development chair Joe Brady said he was not in any hurry to see the maps of the new disadvantaged areas.

“The longer they are not published the better the chance of getting more areas in. So get everyone in first and then let’s see the maps.”

Many farmers among the 250 demanded that classification be based on townlands rather than the bigger DED. The Department of Agriculture is working on the basis that if 60% of farmland in a DED meets the criteria, then the entire DED is classed as disadvantaged. Joe Brady said the IFA wants an appeals mechanism which should examine land on a townland basis.

A number of farmers called for the Department of Agriculture to base eligibility on soil quality only rather than moisture levels. “Rainfall is only half the story,” Wicklow farmer James Hill said. “Soil quality is just as important.”

Some called for the whole country to be declared as disadvantaged. Others objected on the basis that this would see farmers on the best land getting payments they didn’t need.

James Murphy said the IFA’s priority was to have the new maps of disadvantaged areas include all areas currently disadvantaged and to get other areas included as required, by an appeals process if necessary.

IFA president Joe Healy said that to facilitate this he wanted the total funding pool for the ANC scheme restored to the €250m that applied before 2009.