Department to ‘work’ with farmers on inspections says minister after Leitrim visit

The new minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon has said that the department will work with farmers who have been affected by the storm on farm inspections, though he cannot make any blanket bans.

The announcement was made this week on X, formerly Twitter, after the new minister visited some farms in Leitrim that were affected by Storm Eówyn. 

“Prolonged power and water outages are causing a particular challenge at a time when animals are housed and calving is in full swing,“ he said.

“In relation to farm inspections, for those farms which have sustained significant damage or are without power or water, Department officials will work with them on alternative arrangements,” he added.

Mr Heydon told Agriland, on Thursday, that his inspectors would work on a case by case basis, taking into account the damage the storm has caused to a farmer, but he could not put in a blanket ban on inspections as that may cause delays in payments. 

Storm Eóywn have left thousands of people in the dark and caused huge amounts of damage to farms around the country, many in Leitrim are still dealing with the aftermath.

“I think they should be suspended for a while to give farmers a chance,”said Liam Gilligan, Chairman of the Leitrim IFA.

He feels that inspections need to be halted in order to give farmers time to deal with the structural damage that has been caused to farms.

“Farmers have enough to be doing than to be getting word that some department official is coming out to do inspections,“ he said.

READ MORE: Leitrim TD says Dáil should reconvene early to manage storm response