Farming group to insist on detailed plan for bog re-wetting

Anxiety is growing amongst midlands farmers as the plans for bog re-wetting progress without a detailed plan, the ICMSA has said today.

The chairperson of the ICMSA’s Farm and Rural Affairs Committee said the plans for bog re-wetting need accompanying details from Bord na Mona explaining how the interests of private property owners and the productivity of farmland is to be protected.

Denis Dennan said while many in the area had reservations about the extent of the proposed re-wetting, there were “very specific” concerns about the lack of a detailed plan and response procedure in the event of the proposed re-wetting causing general or specific damage to private property.

Mr Drennan said it would be a mistake for the re-wetting to proceed without such a plan governing any unforeseen consequences.

He said that while he understood that Covid precluded any possibility of face-to-face meetings, as soon as it was practicable, such a meeting should be arranged at which all relevant issues could be worked through – “including these 350 associated jobs: where they’ll be and who’ll be getting them”.

He stated: “Certainly the ICMSA will not be accepting any suggestion that we just let this proceed and ‘shure we’ll work around any problems that crop-up down the line’.

“We want a plan to be laid out beforehand covering the possibilities that our members’ farms will be adversely affected by this massive re-wetting project and we want a formal commitment from Bord na Mona that they will abide by that plan.

“Farmers have long and bitter experience of goalposts being moved after the game has started and – without doubting any specific body’s bona fides – we’re not inclined to just take anyone’s word for it any more,” said Mr Drennan.

“We’ll want to see the plans covering possible adverse effects on our farms beforehand and we’ll want to know the exact procedure to be followed if and when that damage occurs.

“Even more important than that, we want Bord na Mona to accept that their duties to remedy any damage to our farms and local infrastructure is effectively open-ended on this: damage or adverse effects resulting from the re-wetting might not be apparent for 25 or 30 years, but it will still be a result of the re-wetting and the onus will still be on Bord na Mona to make good.

“It’s important to the ICMSA that the people of the locality realise that we’re not standing in the way of climate progress, but we can’t allow someone else’s decision to damage the local farmland that generations of farm families had to work so hard to improve and drain and make productive.

“There’s also an issue for other non-farming rural dwellers in the affected areas in terms of possible damage to roads and other infrastructure.

“We’re going to insist that we see the plans and that we receive an actionable commitment from Bord na Mona to repair and make good any adverse effects on our farms.

“We’re also going to insist that local politicians in the affected areas make themselves aware of the issues around this and their duty of care to local farms and communities,” concluded Mr Drennan.