Roads authority spend on farms and property now 23% of its total budget

THE PROPORTION of the NRA (National Roads Authority) budget being spent on land and property has risen from 10 per cent in 2003…

THE PROPORTION of the NRA (National Roads Authority) budget being spent on land and property has risen from 10 per cent in 2003 to 23 per cent last year, a Dáil committee has heard.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was told by Michael Egan of the NRA yesterday that, since 2003, the authority had spent €1.37 billion on land and property.

He outlined the procedures for acquiring land to the committee members who had sought a meeting with the NRA on delays in the payment of compensation and apparent discrepancies in the levels of paid.

Committee chairman Johnny Brady complained farmers did not appear to be getting compensation for loss of lands quickly enough.

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Michael Creed (Fine Gael) spoke of the broad dissatisfaction with the system of compensation, while Seán Sherlock (Labour) called for a revision of the 2001 agreement between the NRA and the IFA (Irish Farmers' Association) on compensation.

Senator Francis O'Brien (Fianna Fáil) complained that farmers were "being kicked around for the common good". Bobby Aylward TD (FF) said there were major discrepancies between the levels of compensation paid.

"In my own area, there can be as much as €40,000 per acre in the difference . . . even though it's all the same quality of grassland."

Many committee members said there should be upfront payments of compensation to farmers.

Senator Paul Bradford (FG) joined in the call for a revision of the IFA-brokered agreement on the basis that its language was too vague and open to interpretation.

Mr Egan said last week the IFA had sought to have the compensation package, with its €5,000-an-acre payment for co-operation, kept until 2013. Land prices were based on local sale prices at the time when the "notices to treat" were issued, which was at the beginning of the acquisition process.

He said about 95 per cent of compensation cases went smoothly. Some 200 had been referred to the non-binding arbitration which was part of the IFA agreement, and very few cases went to binding arbitration.

Mr Egan said most of the delays were caused by problems with title on farms.