After a visit to see farms hit by the worst of Storm Emma, IFA president Joe Healy has called on insurance companies, banks, lending institutions and the Government to make the recovery period as painless as possible.

“There is absolute devastation, the sights that we saw ranging from dairy parlours to cow sheds to glasshouses,” Healy told RTÉ's Today with Sean O’Rourke show on Tuesday. “With one particular glasshouse, two thirds of the farmer’s enterprise is lying in the ground and you can imagine the state of that with all the broken glass lying around the place.”

In that particular incident, he said the grower lost approximately €250,000 worth of produce that was just planted. Healy and other IFA colleagues spent Monday visiting up to 10 farms in Wicklow and Wexford.

“There was another case of a shed that had totally collapsed, it was about 100ft by 70ft and it just collapsed on top of tractors and machinery. The place was a state. The farmers are just devastated, having spent their life building up to what they have at the moment.”

Healy commended the community spirit of farmers and neighbours who offered shed and glasshouse space to those affected. And while there has certainly been animal losses, “thankfully there has been no human tragedy”, he said.

“I spoke to one farmer whose shed had collapsed. He said 'I don’t even know what’s in at the back but I got animals out from the front.' He said ‘I haven’t been in at the back yet’ so he doesn’t know what he is going to face when he gets to the back.”

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