Use RSS scheme to help farmers in the repair of stone walls
MILES of stone walls – one of the trademark sights of rural Connemara – have been flattened during the recent storms and farmers will need some assistance to restore them, Fianna Fáil Agricultural Spokesman, Éamon Ó Cuív, said this week.
He said that he would be contacting the Minister for Social Welfare, for an increase in placements in the Rural Social Scheme (RSS), to help farmers in getting their properties back to some sort of normality over the coming weeks.
“The Rural Social Scheme has done some wonderful work in the West of Ireland over recent years and now its members could be of great help to farmers trying to pick up the pieces after the series of Atlantic storms that have hit us over recent weeks,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.
He said that it shouldn’t be beyond the bounds of possibility for the Minster to sanction extra places on the scheme to help out with this work.
“As everyone out the country knows, rising stone walls is a very labour intensive task. Farmers though have no problem doing this as part of their normal maintenance work but they just cannot cope with the extent of the damage caused by the storms,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.
He added that as well as miles of walls being knocked, many fields close to the coastline were strewn with debris from stones and boulders to seaweed.
In addition to that, said Deputy Ó Cuív, there were also farmers along the coast who had lost land to the sea and who had to live with the loss of that.
Galway IFA Chairman, Michael Flynn, said that any assistance these farmers could get from the Council or the RSS would be most welcome in very difficult times.
“We would also expect that the Dept. of Agriculture would put a moratorium on all inspections over the coming weeks until farmers find their feet again,” said Michael Flynn.
Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, in a statement issued last Friday, said that he wanted to reassure farmers that he and his Department would do everything to assist them at this time.
In relation to inspections in particular, Minister Coveney said his Department would take a common sense approach and farmers need not be worried or concerned on this front.
“For example, where there has been severe storm damage including damage to fences and grazing or large deposits of stone or debris farmers will not be penalised under Direct Payments schemes,” said the Minister.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.