MINISTER for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, has been called upon to extend the deadline for farmers in the Shannon Callows area to apply for financial help to compensate for their fodder losses over the wet summer/autumn period.

In early November, the Minister announced a compensation fund of €800,000 for farmers who couldn’t save hay or silage due to the heavy rains that lasted from early July through to October.

However, according to the IFA some farmers who should be included in the compensation scheme – worth €325 per hectare – have been left out in the process which involved the Department making contact directly with affected landowners.

In the once-off scheme, the Dept. of Agriculture said that they would be contacting farmers affected by the fodder shortage rather than an application system.

Now the IFA has called on Minister McConalogue to extend the deadline for the scheme and to examine why some farmers who should have qualified for the aid have been excluded.

Some affected farmers in the Shannon Callows and Suck catchment areas did not receive Expression of Interest [EI] forms from the Dept. of Agriculture under the SCFS [Shannon Callows Flood Scheme).

The deadline for the return of EI forms was midnight on November 27 last but according to Galway IFA Chair, Stephen Canavan, not all of the farmers who had suffered fodder losses were contacted by the Department.

Pictured: MINISTER for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue