Mr. Tommy Kearney:

I will keep it brief. I am from the townland of Ballagh where my family has lived for several generations. I would like to talk about the impact of Lough Funshinagh flooding on the farming community living around the lake. I propose to deal with the issue from two points of view. They are the financial implications and the humanitarian impact. The farming community has suffered significant financial losses, in agricultural production losses and agricultural policy payments. I will give an example of production losses from my own case. With a reduction of circa30 acres for the entirety of the past six years, I have had to reduce my stock from 12 suckler cows to four and my breeding ewe flock from 50 to 26. In addition, access to my remaining land has become problematic. In February 2021, for example, my vet was able to access my farmyard for my annual herd test on Tuesday but when he returned to read the results on the following Friday, he could only access it on foot. I am sure members will appreciate that such access issues cause serious difficulties and stress in times of animal husbandry emergencies, both for farmer and animal. Another example of access issues is the case of another farmer who is located less than 1 km from a land parcel who is forced to make a round trip of 30 km to access his land due to roads being flooded.

An example of loss of agricultural policy payments relates to one farmer who had a penalty of €4,500 in 2017.

For the next five years, he was forced to lease premiums at 50% of their value, resulting in a cumulative loss of €11,250. The total loss was therefore €15,750, excluding production losses.

On the humanitarian impact, the impact of the flooding was and is the cause of much turmoil in the lives of the affected community. For weeks and months on end, people were and are afraid to leave their homes other than for necessary trips such as shopping, lest pumps malfunctioned or weather conditions changed and caused flooding. In my own case in 2021, we went to Roscommon town only to find that on our return, in the space of less than three hours, due to a moderate increase in wind speed that resulted in increased waves, the waters had overrun the road and we could not access our home with our groceries. Thankfully, we never required the services of an ambulance or emergency services.

At this point, I wish to acknowledge the efforts made by Roscommon County Council at all times to assist the community in whatever way it could. I could continue to relay many stories of people who were distraught by reason of the impact on them. However, in deference to the people involved, I do not wish to go into any detail. Please let me assure the committee that I have heard and seen some harrowing evidence of the mental and psychological trauma endured. With the onset of winter and the flood levels already rising again even as we speak, the distress and anxiety continues for the community. We are continually at the mercy of the weather. One home has gone with the solution already two thirds complete. Are we to endure the loss of further homes?