Thousands of acres of land being lost to the sea, warn farm groups

Farmers along the western and southern seaboard are counting the cost of the recent floods and storms with thousands of acres of farmland covered in stones and other debris from the sea.

IFA president Eddie Downey said up to 1,000 hectares of land was affected in Co Mayo alone.

"This land requires remedial works over the next number of months to bring it back to its former state," he said. Mr Downey is meeting Minister of State for the Office of Public Works Brian Hayes today to discuss the issue.

Pat O'Donoghue, secretary of Clare ICMSA, said thousands of farmers from Mayo to Cork were affected by seawater flooding.

Grass dying
Stones, seaweed and other debris were strewn across fields. "But worst of all, once the flooding goes, you'll see ponds of salt water around the place. And instead of the fields greening up, you'll see the grass dying away because of the salt. It's burning the grass off the ground."

He said this land would have to be reseeded and would be out of use for at least six months. In one case, 250 acres was flooded at Doonbeg, Co Clare, when rock blocked a drain. “They reckon at least 3,000 farmers from Mayo down to Cork are affected, each inflicted with different amounts of misery.”

Mr O'Donoghue also said farmers were worried that the next bad storm would make their roads impassable for lorries collecting milk and delivering feed. ICMSA president John Comer said there was a sense that the "utter destruction" of farm land and facilities had gone relatively unnoticed because the focus was on towns and cities.

Beyond use
"We have members whose houses have not alone been wrecked but also their source of income, their farms, have been severely impacted upon with buildings and fields effectively put beyond any use," Mr Comer said.

“We are respectfully calling on the Government to acknowledge the less high-profile but no less disastrous damage done to rural farming communities and to include that damage in any national or EU compensation package.”Mr Downey said the Government must fully assess the impact of the recent storm and floods on coastal and river catchment areas and take action to help those affected and to prevent a recurrence.

Many farmers were concerned they would lose part of their EU single farm payment because they had lost land to the sea but Mr Downey said no farmer should lose out.

"Minister Coveney should instruct his department to secure force majeure so that normal farm payments can be made," he said.