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The establishment of a disaster fund for the couple of hundred tillage farmers whose harvests were destroyed by weather now seems inevitable.
Tillage farmers are calling on Minister Michael Creed comply with the wishes of the Dáil and put a disaster fund in place. A large group of farmers protested outside the Dáil on Wednesday, with a significant representation in the public gallery as the debate was taking place.
The IFA grain committee, led by chair Liam Dunne, were out in force, but there was particularly large representation from the worst-affected counties. IFA’s survey quantified the localised nature of the problem, and the scale of devastation for the affected farmers.
Farmers from Cork and Galway in particular have engaged in a succession of meetings advancing the case for a fund, which played no small part in a Dáil motion being brought forward.
As one Clare farmer, Shane Nolan, put it, “we have met TDs from Cork to Donegal”, from the ranks of both Government and opposition.
Listen to reactions from Minister Creed and other members of the coalition in our podcast below:
Listen to "What next for tillage farmers?" on Spreaker.
Resistance to a fund seems to centre more on the difficulty of establishing a working model. The Cork farmers advanced a system proposed by Jim O’Regan, which encompassed a half dozen criteria – the farmer’s herd number, the LPIS no of affected fields, invoices of inputs such as seed and chemicals, and grain statements of crop delivered to quantify yield losses. A date range from 12 September onwards was proposed, as corn cut after that date was really only a salvage operation.
The Department is resistant to opening a scheme that would leave a massive administrative burden, with the experience of the 2010 vegetable scheme fresh in the memory.
The issue now goes to the tillage forum, where it seems the agenda will not be if, but how a scheme will be devised.
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