Call for compensation for Lough Funshinagh area farmers

A call this week at Roscommon County Council’s May meeting to the Ministers of Finance and Agriculture to provide compensation to the farmers who have flooded land around Lough Funshinagh received unanimous support from all local councillors.

Cllr Tony Ward repeated his motion of three years ago at the meeting, where he called for compensation for the farmers.

“I’m not sure whether Roscommon County Council received a reply at that time, because I didn’t,” said the Independent councillor. “I speak here today for the farmers who have struggled over the last ten years with loss of payments. Their incomes were cut and that has been the case.”

He praised the work that has been done by the county council in Lough Funshinagh, but said that if the lake rises again, the farmers won’t be able to operate.

He also called on the government to carry out a survey on the amount of damage done to boundary walls and fences and trees at Lough Funshinagh.

“When I was younger, the wildlife was there in great abundance, and in that time and in the present, the farmers took great pride in the Lough Funshinagh area,” said Cllr Ward.

Cllr Laurence Fallon, who seconded the motion said that he wanted to put it out there that he is a landowner around the lake.

“The crisis saw extremely severe loss of income for farmers there,” said the Independent councillor. “There were about 50 farmers of medium to small size but there is great sign of hope now. The lake has gone down very rapidly, due to the weather and pumping. It is still three metres higher that it should be but there is no doubt a lot of work has been done.”

Cllr Fallon said the first and most important thing is to get the pipe in and a permanent solution put in place and agreed with Cllr Ward in having a full assessment of the damage done.

“There was a lot of damage done with regard to wildlife and plants and all agencies need to come together on this, because its bigger than stone walls and bigger than trees, it’s about soil damage and about the environment,” said Cllr Fallon.

Fine Gael’s Cllr Domnick Connolly said it was a very timely motion with the water currently receding and the land becoming more accessible.

“I think compensation should be put in place and fair play to Roscommon County Council for bringing Lough Funshinagh this far, but there are no trees there, and everything is destroyed,” said Cllr Connolly. “It was horrific to see houses with floods up to their doors. I hope we will be able to do something to compensate those farmers for the loss of use of their land for years.”

His Fine Gael colleague Cllr Valerie Duffy said that she agreed there should be compensation for past and future loss of earnings for farmers. She also said it’s important to document the story of what happened at Lough Funshinagh, for the benefit of other communities, and for local and national governments.

Also supporting was Fianna Fail’s Cllr John Keogh who said that he also called on the Minister for Agriculture to put in place a scheme and said he was disappointed with the response from the department

“This is something which should be done out of fairness and equity for the farming community,” said Cllr Keogh.

Cllr Ward said that the farmers will continue to lose until the land returns.

“I welcome that the lough is going down x amount, but not enough,” he said. “It will take help with the pump at Lough Funshinagh to pump out the water and get it back to the level of 2012.”

He said that while he was born and reared there, he has no farm interest there, but did highlight that he has family members living there, who have some “one hundred plus acres underwater,”.

“It will take a long time for the land to return to what it was,” said Cllr. Ward.

The South Roscommon councillors were also supported by Cllr Nigel Dineen, Independent and Fianna Fail’s Cllr Marty McDermott of Roscommon Municipal District.