Pressure is growing on Minister Michael Creed to deliver a crisis aid package for 400 tillage farmers whose harvest was ruined by weather.

On Tuesday, members of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee from all shades of the political spectrum supported the creation of such a fund. The IFA, which addressed the meeting, estimates the funding required to be about €5m.

The presence of TDs not on the committee but from the worst affected constituencies in Cork and Kerry was notable.

Earlier in the afternoon, the minister engaged with the committee. While recognising the difficulties farmers face, he explained the barriers preventing an aid package. The main issue is limitations from Brussels on state aid. He pointed to the €150m low-interest fund in which he had specifically insisted on including tillage. This was not well received by opposition TDs.

Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue said there was plenty of precedent for up to €15,000 per applicant to be given without breaching state aid rules.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, McConalogue said it would be relatively easy to ensure farmers could only apply for either the loan or aid scheme. He said €5m of the €20m being carried over to 2017 could be freed up to help stricken tillage farmers.

IFA president Joe Healy said “no is not an option for these farmers”. He outlined the information gleaned from the IFA’s survey of affected growers. Some 200 have so far responded, citing yield losses of between 30% and 70%.

Tillage farmer Jim O’Regan highlighted the losses last winter, necessitating replanting. “All we want is a level playing field,” he said.

The IFA will have completed the survey within 10 days, Healy confirmed. Grain committee chair Liam Dunne highlighted the need to support the affected farmers or “the land will go out to grass”.

The possibility of GM crops being grown in the UK post-Brexit was raised. Licensing of agri-chemical products here may be problematic – we always had a shared licensing area with Britain.