Farmers in Pulathomas, Co Mayo, whose farms were badly hit by the major landslide last September, met last night to discuss the latest aid scheme put in place to help them get back into full production.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, yesterday announced a €100,000 aid scheme for the farmers whose holdings were affected by the landslide.
The €100,000 payout will be in addition to the €300,000 distributed by the Red Cross to alleviate hardship following the landslide which damaged homes, farm buildings, farmland and the local graveyard.
This latest package will deal with damage to farm buildings as well as assisting with the removal of debris and the restoration of fencing. There will be no financial assistance to help farmers with the extra costs they faced to feed their stock over the winter or to help them replace stock they were forced to sell and this is causing some concern.
Some farmers feel the State should be more generous as they had not contributed to the damage to their farms, located in one of the poorest areas of the State.
The Irish Farmers' Association said discussions would take place overnight on the compensation offered and the conditions attached.
Mr Walsh said his officials had carried out a detailed survey of the farms to assess the overall damage.
He said he appreciated the difficulties which the farmers continued to face and had asked his officials to finalise the formal scheme as a matter of urgency.