Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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59. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the action being taken in his Department following on from the recent report completed by Teagasc and submitted to his Department about the impact on farmers following damage to their farmland as a result of recent flooding on the Cooley Peninsula in November 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25730/24]

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Not for the first time, I will ask the Minister for an update on the action being taken in his Department following on from the recent report completed by Teagasc and submitted to the Department about the impact on farmers following damage to their farmland as a result of recent flooding on the Cooley Peninsula around Hallowe'en 2023. Obviously, there was a significant amount of damage and a huge impact on farmers. In fairness, I welcomed the fact that the report and interaction have happened, but it is the timeline I am questioning.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for raising this issue. As he knows, I am very much aware of the impact on agriculture of adverse weather during the winter of last year. I have taken action in a number of ways to support farmers, including direct supports for unharvested crops and other measures introduced through the national fodder and food security committee.

I particularly recognise the localised impact of storms on the Cooley Peninsula in October and November 2023. From 18 October to 2 November, Ireland was subjected to two back-to-back storms. The latter storm saw high winds and unprecedented rainfall on already saturated ground, which resulted in a landslide and localised flooding on the Cooley Peninsula.

I asked Teagasc to survey the peninsula. This work identified the area damaged from the landslide and flooding, the result of which saw large deposits of rock, gravel and debris on agricultural lands, in addition to loss and damage to fencing, stored fodder and fertiliser supplies.

In recognition of the difficulties arising from this severe weather event, I have charged my Department with providing financial aid to assist with restoring these agricultural lands to their pre-storm condition. My Department will now engage directly with those affected to assist in applying for financial support. It is envisaged this engagement will take place in the coming weeks. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He has raised it with me on a number of occasions. Senator McGreehan has been working very closely with me on this matter from the outset in making sure a scheme could be progressed and I am glad we have got it to the stage it is at.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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A number of elected representatives in the area met the farmers. One of the fears I brought to the Minister's attention was that there is a huge amount of damage done regarding fodder and fertiliser, and damage done to land. Farmers needed to carry out mitigation measures during the flooding and afterwards to allow them to relieve livestock. Some of the farmers' fear was that they had already put a serious amount of money into this. They wanted to make sure this would be covered under the scheme, combined with any other works that still remain to be done to bring back the land to its original state. Antóin Watters, Fiona Mhic Choncoille and I will be working on making sure we mitigate as best we can in relation to what can happen into the future.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I have asked my Department to look at having the capacity to respond in a prompt manner when intervention is needed. It has been a long time since this happened before. The Inishowen floods in my own area in 2017 was the last time there was a need for an intervention such as this. I recognise that this is not on the same scale but on a localised basis it has been quite acute for the affected farmers. It was brought to my attention by Senator Erin McGreehan as well as by the Deputy. I am now glad to progress this work and to get to the stage where we are engaging with farmers on being able to open applications. I will be also reviewing this issue long-term to ensure we have a system in place to be able to respond and be ready to go in situations where farmers need intervention.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome that this is happening and obviously a huge amount of work has gone into it. I accept that the Minister is probably not going to give an exact timeline. It would be over the next couple of weeks, but I would appreciate as much information as he can provide regarding that. I welcome the fact that there will be direct interaction with the farmers. Will it cover retrospective works that farmers were forced to carry out before this period? There would be an absolute necessity. I also welcome the fact - it is a conversation we had previously - that an off-the-shelf scheme or system needs to be developed and I welcome the moves in that direction.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It has been closely modelled on the previous time we did this during the Inishowen situation. I will not go into the finer detail of the scheme here today. Let me just say there will be engagement over the next few weeks in terms of having farmers apply for the scheme and actioning it. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.