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Calls have been made to extend the deadline farmers affected by the 2020 landslide in Shass, Co Leitrim, have to apply to the Department of Agriculture scheme put in place to compensate them for the landslide.
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) stated that clarity is needed on land direct payments eligibility before farmers sign up to the compensation package established by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.
INHFA’s Leitrim chair Martin Feehily claimed that the group was awaiting clarification from the Department on whether land on which compensation monies were received could be eligible for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), which is to replace the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) from next year onwards.
The application deadline for the Shass Landslide Relief Scheme is currently 30 November 2022 for the 19 farmers affected by a landslide which followed heavy rains in the summer of 2020.
Provisions have been made to allow payments of up to €20,000 to those impacted.
Need for certainty
Speaking on the need for farmer certainty on BISS eligibility, Feehily said that it is unfair to expect farmers to sign up to a compensation scheme without knowing the full consequences of doing so.
"If they sign up to the landslide relief scheme with the current terms and conditions insisting that the affected areas will not be considered an eligible area for the purposes of the BISS or any other area-related schemes in future, where do they stand?” he asked.
“It’s unfair and unjust to expect anyone to sign up to terms and conditions of a scheme when the scheme designers have agreed to seek clarity on a critical element of the scheme, which is whether or not the affected lands can be considered as agricultural areas going forward."
The Leitrim INHFA chair called on Minister McConalogue to intervene and postpone the deadline until the issues he raised have been resolved.
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