Callows farmers' fodder payment scheme 'not working'

A FODDER payment scheme set up during the autumn in order to compensate Callows farmers is simply not working, a meeting was told last week.
A meeting room in Luker's Bar, Shannonbridge was packed with about a hundred farmers who expressed their anger and frustration with the current scheme and how it's being operated.
Under the scheme the farmers make applications to the Department of Agriculture and receive flooding compensation of €325 per hectare. Each individual farmer cannot receive more than €4,875 in total. Using satellite imagery the government decides whether the farmers are entitled to the money or not. The money is for those farmers whose land was flooded between July 2nd, 2023 and September 29th, 2023.
The Department of Agriculture says the “Shannon Callows Flood Scheme” (SCFS) is to “support farmers with affected land in the Shannon Callows that has prevented some farmers from conserving sufficient fodder (silage and/or hay) for the 2023/24 winter due to exceptional flooding of the Shannon Callows in the summer of 2023.”
The Department sent out “expressions of interest” letters to the impacted farmers to apply for the scheme that the “Area Monitoring System (AMS) has identified as having been impacted by exceptional flooding.”
Those farmers which received an Expression of Interest from SCFS had to reply by November 27th. The Department said only grassland parcels suitable and available for harvesting hay and or silage before September 29th last, “declared on your BISS 2023 (Basic Income Support for Sustainability) and having been identified as having been affected by flooding by the Department's Area Monitoring System will be eligible.”
The SCFS was announced by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue in early November, who said there was a budget of €800,000 for the one-off package. The Minister also confirmed that a “small number” of land parcels along the River Suck and the Little Brosna River that are located within the Shannon Callows were eligible for payment. The Minister said he was “acutely aware of the hardship that exceptional rainfall during the summer has had on farmers around the country.”
However, many farmers in the Callows region are saying the SCFS is not working. They are questioning the accuracy and fairness of the satellite system. They are also pointing out that the bureaucracy is onerous and the Department is frequently unsympathetic to their cause.
Last week Save Our Shannon Organisation (SOSO) called an emergency meeting in Luker's to express the situation as it currently exists for many farmers. The fact there was such a huge turnout in Luker's told its own story.
Seated at the top table of the meeting were Michael Silke, Liam Broderick and Emily Young of SOSO. Beside them were signs stating, “Residents at mercy of Waterways Ireland” and “Remove pinchpoints”.
Michael Silke, Chairperson of SOSO, said the SCFS was set in motion after a meeting in Athlone last September with the Tánaiste Micheál Martin. Since then some farmers have qualified for compensation, he said, but many have not, which is “totally unfair. The Scheme is being rendered effectively useless for many farmers because of the way it is being implemented. The satellite imagery is not capturing the full extent of the flooding, nowhere near it. I was told I wasn't entitled to a payment because the satellite imagery could pick up no flooding. In fact there was two to three feet of flooding on my land during the summer. There are about 500 farmers in the Callows region and many of us are being hard done by. Some farmers got some money. Some farmers got no money. Some farmers are totally discounted when they ring the Department. To be honest, when you ring the Department it can feel as if you are ringing a robot because of the lack of sympathy. And those who get the payment say it's a help but is not enough.
“The situation as it now stands for us is so serious that you would have to wonder if there is a future for farmers in this region at all.” He praised Micheál Martin for putting the Scheme in place, but reiterated that it was nowhere near good enough.
Liam Broderick said SOSO had invited a number of local representatives to the Luker's meeting but none had turned up. He said this was very disappointing. He thanked The Midland Tribune and the Farmers Journal for being present.
Emily Young went through some of the history of flooding in the Callows and the issues associated with it, including SOSO's repeated call for one authority to be appointed to oversee the management of the Shannon.
A number of farmers at the meeting said it was their belief that the Ardnacrusha Dam was a major cause of the flooding incidents on the Shannon. If it wasn't for the Dam, they believed, the flooding incidents would be nowhere near as devastating for farmers.
Other farmers said the pinchpoints on the system caused by silt running into the system from surrounding bogland were a big problem. They said very little has been done to tackle the pinchpoints.
Emily Young, Secretary of SOSO, said it took too long for Waterways Ireland to open the gates at Meelick Weir in July and this delay of a couple of weeks was critical. She said SOSO held a protest at Ardnacrusha and called on the ESB to allow more water to flow through the Dam's sluice gates.
The meeting heard criticism of some politicians' lack of sympathy for the farmers. “You may as well be trying to get through to the man on the moon,” said one farmer.
Michael Silke said the Area Monitoring System's lack of effectiveness would be laughable, if it wasn't so serious.
Several farmers from the Lusmagh area told the meeting that their lands were badly flooded during the summer but they got no money.
“I got paid some compensation,” said one farmer, “but the farm immediately adjacent, didn't, which didn't make sense.”
Another farmer said they are only looking for “fair play and justice.”
Another farmer pointed out that the Department is putting an ineffectual technological system over the farmer's word. “In effect,” he said, “the system isn't really working. It's only partly working.”
One farmer said he lost hundreds of bales of fodder. He called the Scheme “scandalous”. He said losing so much fodder means you have to adjust your stock numbers.
“When I rang the Department,” commented another, “the woman answering the phone said the eye in the sky didn't pick up water on my land. I told her my fields were amongst the first to be flooded, but she wouldn't listen.”
Liam Broderick said the SCFS is the first time compensation was ever given to the Callows farmers; however it is nowhere near fit for purpose. He said SOSO has drone film footage showing the true extent of the flooding.
One farmer said the weight of his suckler cows is much lighter than it should be because of the flooding issue.
Michael Silke pointed out that the Callows farmers are “the most environmentally friendly farmers in Ireland.”
He said the flooding has wiped out the corncrake and is about to wipe out the curlew. "When I was a young lad there were countless corncrakes. Now they are all gone. It's very sad.”
He added that the Shannon “is very dirty. The silt needs to be removed;” adding that, “once in a century flooding events are now happening regularly. We are not looking to dredge the Shannon. We are looking to at least remove the pinchpoints, pinchpoints which were created since the 1940s because of the major turf cutting by Bord na Móna.” SOSO has identified 18 pinchpoints between Athlone and Meelick Weir. “There is no opposition in Brussels to clearing the pinchpoints,” said Michael, “the opposition is coming from our own government.”
Liam Broderick pointed out that SOSO wants “freedom from flooding; and freedom to farm.”