FRUSTRATION is mounting among Galway’s grain farmers that little progress is being made in the establishment of a ‘rescue fund’ for growers who suffered massive losses this harvest due to the weather conditions.
Two months of discussion and lobbying have so far not delivered even the hint of any emergency funding being provided to help compensate around 450 growers along the Western Seaboard counties for their losses.
John Daly, Chairman of the Galway IFA Grain Committee, told the Farming Tribune, that if it was any other farming sector that had suffered such losses, a package would already be in place.
“We really do need the IFA at the highest level and the Dept. of Agriculture to get this package in place. There are growers who have suffered losses of up to €50,000 after the horrendous harvest they endured.
“And, at the end of the day, the figures involved in this rescue fund are not by any means large in the context of overall agricultural spending.
“We are looking at a rescue fund of the order of about €3 million, a figure that will at least help grain growers to take the sting out of a horrible harvest. But it’s now two months on since the harvest and nothing has happened,” said John Daly.
He also pointed out that French farmers – who had also ‘taken a hammering’ with the disastrous September weather – had come on board in terms of putting a once-off rescue package in place.
“All the indications we’ve received so far from Europe and the EU have been positive, but we need our Minister for Agriculture, his Department and the Government to come on board to get this over the line,” said John Daly.
However, Fianna Fáil Agriculture Spokesperson Charlie McConalogue said last week, following a Dáil debate, that the Government appeared to have ruled out crisis funding for tillage farmers, a decision he described as ‘hugely disappointing’.
He said that after raising the issue in the Dáil, he was told by Minister Michael Creed that he did not “believe the response to the myriad of issues being faced in the sector has been bad”.
“I find these comments extraordinary considering those farmers who have seen their land and crops destroyed by recent severe weather.
“Tillage farmers will feel especially let down by the Government, which has done nothing to support them during this difficult period”, said Deputy McConalogue.
