Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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5. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will put a relief or compensation scheme in place for those farmers whose land has suffered severe damage due to recent flooding. [2365/16]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Following the terrible weather conditions in the lead-up to Christmas and afterwards, in many areas, there was unprecedented terrible flooding on farmland and consequential losses incurred. Has the Minister put in place any mechanism whereby people can access support to deal with the vast losses they have incurred?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The recent severe floods of December and early January caused widespread problems and have impacted significantly on a number of farms. Farms in western counties and those located in the catchment areas of larger rivers, including the Shannon, were most significantly affected. From my own first-hand experience of the situation it was clear that farmers experienced significant difficulties including loss of fodder, damage to sheds and milking parlours and challenges in managing livestock. Livestock was also lost in the floods.

While the problem of preventing regular flooding of agricultural lands at risk is one that requires an integrated inter-agency response, the immediate problems facing the worst affected farmers must be dealt with directly and at first hand. When the floods started last December, the welfare of animals on some farms was at risk due to rising water levels and lack of access to critical fodder supplies. To deal with this problem, I operated an emergency welfare scheme to provide the worst affected farms with short-term emergency feed. To date, 136 farmers have benefited from this scheme, receiving 360 tonnes of concentrate in total, some of which was dropped in by helicopter in south Galway.

As the floods continued unabated, a significant number of farmers experienced damage and losses to stocks of fodder and feed. Following Government agreement, I launched a fodder scheme on 7 January, to assist these farmers in replacing fodder including hay, silage, straw and concentrates that were badly damaged by the flooding and where these losses were not covered by insurance. As of Tuesday last, 183 applications for support had been received under the scheme. On-farm visits will be undertaken by Department personnel in all cases to confirm the quantities of fodder lost due to flooding. The closing date for applications is tomorrow, Friday, 22 January. The application period is relatively short in order to ensure we can make payments quickly, which we want to do. Farmers will get full market value for their lost fodder.

A further measure is also under consideration to cover a very small number of farmers who have experienced extreme hardship, including through the loss of livestock. Any such measure must comply with European Commission state aid rules. We will publish details of this more extensive support scheme for the farms that have suffered extreme hardship.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister. I appreciate the work done during this terrible period by the Minister, the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, the farming organisations and communities to try to help each other in very difficult circumstances. This January and at the end of December, land was flooded that had never been flooded before. Some tens of thousands of acres were damaged.

The weight of water on top killed off vegetation and grass, and farmers will have to plough, rotovate, re-seed and fertilise their land in order to get it back working, hopefully, by June or early July. Until then, they will be at a loss for grazing. Tillage farmers had tens of thousands of acres of potatoes in the ground before Christmas, and they have lost them. Are there any provisions in the Minister's proposals to help or compensate these farmers in some way for the losses they have incurred?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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It is very difficult to start compensating farmers for the loss of a crop in a field. We are exploring the possibility of compensating farmers for the loss of stock in polytunnels, glass houses or farm houses, in the same way as stocks of feed or grain that are lost because flooding has come in the door. It is very difficult to assess the loss of a crop or the cost of reseeding grassland that has been under water for eight weeks. If we start doing it, we will be into a whole new category of assessment and we probably could not afford it.

Ireland is a wet place. We are experiencing more extreme winter storms and we must examine adapting to floods more effectively. We are trying to reach out and support farmers as best we can by way of emergency support for feed and animal welfare, basic compensation for loss of feed. Most of the problems are on livestock farms. If there is damage to buildings or what is stored in them, we will consider supporting it. However, it would be difficult for us to extend it to assessing crop losses and providing compensation for it. There is a series of income supports under the common agriculture policy, CAP, that should be helpful. The schemes have probably gone as far as they are likely to go.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I am disappointed. I would have assumed that grass was feed for the coming months, particularly February and March, when there would be early grass. This is gone for many farmers. Some of those affected are the more marginal and less well-off people. It will cost a lot to plough, rotovate, re-seed and fertilise land and put it back in working use. Many of the people affected do not have adequate resources for it.

The Minister said 22 January will be the cut-off date for applications. Will he extend it? Many people are only coming to terms with the loss they have incurred and are trying to get it assessed, fill in the forms and send them in and get the local authorities to come and examine the damage. The Minister should consider extending the date for the people affected.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Farmers do not have to get local authorities to examine anything. Local authorities are involved in approval for the Red Cross scheme, which is a separate scheme. Farmers have to fill in a self-declaration form detailing the number of silage bales in the field they have lost or the amount of nuts or feed in a shed that was lost. We will send somebody out to verify it, which will be a straightforward process. The reason we set tomorrow as the deadline is that we want to get payments out quickly. I want to get cash to farmers within the next few weeks, rather than having a long period for applications. My only motivation is to try to turn it around quickly so farmers can get money to replace lost fodder if they need to.

There is plenty of fodder in the country, given that we had a very good grass growing season last year. Fodder is not particularly expensive relative to previous years when we have had fodder problems. As long as we give full market value for fodder that was lost, farmers will have the option of buying fodder in if they need it. If there is significant demand for an extension of the scheme for genuine reasons, of course we will consider it. I am not looking to exclude anybody.