Callows farmers vow to 'fight on' in bid to secure fodder compensation

An organisation representing farmers in the Shannon Callows has compiled drone footage of what they have described as “the highest and most sustained” summer flooding of 2023 in a bid to get compensation for those most affected.

A video of the flooding which was produced by the Save Our Shannon Organisation (SOSO) was delivered to the Department of Agriculture office in Portlaoise on Friday last by SOSO member Liam Broderick, and a copy has also been sent to Agriculture Minister Charlie MacConalogue, the Earth Observation (EO) team and the members of the Shannon Callows Flood Scheme (SCFS) review group.

At a packed meeting in Shannonbridge two weeks ago, over 200 farmers from all along the Shannon Callows outlined the problems they are having in obtaining compensation under the Shannon Callows Flood Scheme (SCFS) for thousands of acres of fodder which was lost during last year's summer flooding.

Arising from that meeting, the issue was raised in the Dail by way of Parliamentary Questions tabled by Independent Roscommon/Galway TD Deputy Denis Naughten, and also by Sinn Féin agriculture spokesperson Claire Kerrane, with the former stating that farmers with ten hectares or more of land impacted by Shannon Callows flooding “have only been paid for a proportion of these lands” under the compensation scheme.

“From our own research and from talking with farmers we know that many of them are only being paid for a small portion of their lands,” said Liam Broderick, “and we also have many examples of where one farmer is being paid under the Scheme while the farmer directly beside him, who has also suffered the very same losses of hay and fodder as a result of summer flooding, is being deemed as ineligible for compensation.”

SOSO believes that the Department of Agriculture is trying to “shoehorn” all the farmers who are applying for compensation into the total figure of €800,000 which has been allocated to the Shannon Callows Flood Scheme. They are also calling on the Department to send out representatives to walk the flooded lands instead of relying on earth observation technology to determine eligibility.

“When the Department of Agriculture are relying on the 'eye in the sky' or satellite images taken by their earth observation team, it doesn't show the true extent of the flooding because they could be looking at green fields, but underneath we know that this land is completely flooded,” points out Liam Broderick. He contends that the only reliable means of assessing the true extent of the flooding experienced by farmers in the Shannon Callows region is by “walking the land.”

SOSO has written to the Department of Agriculture on two separate occasions since last summer's flooding to request that a representative be sent out to walk the lands in the Shannon Callows but Liam Broderick says, to date, they have received “no response” to their request.

With SOSO estimating that some 400 farmers, in contrast to the Department's estimate of 230, could be eligible for compensation under the terms of the Shannon Callows Flood Scheme, they feel that more money will have to be allocated to it. “We have collected the names of at least 90 farmers who never even got application letters from the Department inviting them to apply for the scheme,” says Liam Broderick, “so we strongly feel that they won't be able to shoehorn all the eligible farmers into the money that is currently available because there are too many of them.”

Mr Broderick says the group will “fight on” in a bid to secure adequate compensation for every farmer along the Shannon Callows whose suffered a wipeout of their fodder in last year's unprecedented spell of summer flooding.