IFA Meets Minister to Secure Aid for Donegal Flood Damage
IFA President Joe Healy and Donegal Chairman, Michael Chance met with Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed again on Friday to press for an aid package to provide support for farmers affected by recent flash flooding.
Michael Chance said, “We stressed to Minister Creed the need to get support in place early with autumn fast approaching and farmers needing to get re-established for the year ahead.”
This was the second meeting between IFA and the Minister on the issue. In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, Joe Healy visited Donegal and secured an undertaking from Minister Creed that an assessment of losses would take place without delay.
The assessment by Teagasc is now underway, and Michael Chance has urged all affected farmers to get in touch with their local Teagasc office as early as possible to ensure their losses are recorded.
He said IFA will maintain pressure on the Minister and Government to deliver an aid package that covers the losses incurred by farmers whose crops and livestock have been devastated. IFA has also met with other political representatives from Donegal.
“Farmland, sheds, stock, fencing and farmhouses have been badly damaged and farmers need Government to take action, and provide reassurance that support will be forthcoming very soon,” Michael Chance insisted.
The Donegal IFA Chairman paid tribute to IFA members who have been actively supporting farmers on the ground during the clean-up operation. He said farmers from as far away as Wexford have donated fodder for those who lost bales and crops and more support from fellow farmers is promised.
The flood response will be the main focus of the Donegal IFA County Executive on September 12th. The meeting has been moved from Letterkenny to Buncrana and all farmers are encouraged to attend.
Pat and David Creane, from Kilmyshall, Co Wexford, donated 50 bales to farmers affected by flooding in Donegal.
The fodder was transported on Saturday last by Rory O’Shaughnessy to the farms of Michael Gubbins in Buncrana, who lost 160 bales of silage and his second cut of silage, and Paul Doherty, Carndonagh, who lost fodder and sheep.
