Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House to discuss my request that consideration be given to having a review of the compensation package for farmers for the cull of livestock as a result of the foot and mouth disease outbreak in Louth in 2001. I find this very difficult to speak about. It was a very upsetting time in all our lives in north Louth. It was 22 years ago but, given the hurt, it is like it happened yesterday. No one here or in the Department could ever imagine the upset and trauma the culling of all the animals - healthy animals, I must add - caused among the entire community of the Cooley Peninsula in north Louth.

I will bring the House back to that panic of February, March and April 2001 and the national disaster involving a disease that could ruin our biggest indigenous industry. Our peninsula was not our own any more: gardaí, Department officials, the Army and the media all moved into our beautiful, usually peaceful farming community. There was so much fear and uncertainty. We feared for our neighbours' stock and we feared for our own stock. We feared the worst, and the worst happened. We tended to our sheep, the newborn lambs and the new calves in the hope and optimism that spring brings, but everything turned so bleak in light of what was to come. There was a rush to action in the national interest. Farmers knew the cull had to happen, and great co-operation was given by the farmers of the Cooley Peninsula at the time of the cull.

There was a compensation package, but from very early on, as the Department will be very much aware, the farmers affected were not satisfied with the valuations. There were meetings, protests and rows over the different approaches that should be taken and lots of division among friends, neighbours and families as to what was the best course of action for the devastated community. A review of the valuations was announced and concluded in May 2001, and farmers did get a top-up on the original valuations. That was an opportunity to get it right, but the Department did not take that opportunity, despite continued protests outside Leinster House and in Dundalk. Some farmers were so frustrated by how they were treated and how their livelihoods were taken from them that they initiated legal action in order to get adequate compensation. There was a clear understanding at the time that once legal action was concluded, other farmers would be dealt with by the Department. That court action has continued for decades. After 21 years, the Department has settled with a group of farmers who took to the courts to get what they were entitled to. Financial packages have rightly been paid out to those farmers. Now, we have the most unsatisfactory situation whereby there are two tiers of compensation packages: one for the farmers who took a legal challenge; and one for the others who believed the Department at the time that it would be willing to reopen negotiations with representatives after the legal action was over.

The crux of this matter is that each farming family made the same sacrifice, with the same losses and the same trauma, and they all co-operated with the cull, but some are now being treated differently. The substantial issue is that it sets a very bad tone for the future co-operation and goodwill of farmers and the faith we have in the Department, and that faith will be reduced. If we are to have any expectation of co-operation from farmers in any future disease outbreak like that given by the Cooley farmers, surely it is time to put this matter to rest.

I thank the Minister of State. I look forward to his response.