Leitrim issues highlighted to councillors

Addressing the councillors at the latest Council meeting which was held in Kinlough, Leitrim IFA chair Liam Gilligan spoke about a number of issues relevant to Leitrim including planning permission for one-off houses.
He said: “One-off houses for farmers' sons and daughters is a major problem and it comes back to us on a regular basis that a son or daughter can't get planning. It's a major issue.
“Another issue is the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT). Any land that is being farmed should be exempt from that and there are many farmers very frustrated by it.”
He continued that forestry in the county is a “very contentious issue” and said that it needs to be addressed as does the ash dieback issue in the county.
He noted that there is talk of increased water charges and that this was another issue to be tackled.
Mr Gilligan called on the councillors to support the motion at the meeting as well as support the Enough is Enough campaign.
During the meeting, Cllr Brendan Barry proposed that the council support the farmers which was readily accepted by all members.
Meanwhile, former chair of the IFA Sheep Committee Kevin Comiskey, who intends to run for Fine Gael in next year's local elections in the Manorhamilton MD, said that the Sheep Improvement Scheme which he worked on and which provides for farmers getting €12 per breeding ewe for completing flock welfare measures, was kept “simple” and said this is key to the success of a scheme.
He continued: “It's all the bureaucracy, etc. that is involved in farming at the minute. You have all the outside bodies such as ICBF, Sheep Ireland, laboratories doing DNA testing, BVD testing; Teagasc are doing the ACRES training course and one facilitator doing a course with 20 farmers for the day getting €90 per farmer.
They have spent about €12.5m so far on these courses and any farmers you talk to have said that it's probably a waste of time and they are going around looking at things they are seeing every day of the week and working hard for the environment.
“When you see that money being spent and then farmers waiting and their payments being held since last November and only being drip fed payments now; maybe getting overpaid and having to repay money.”
He commented, “It's a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork and farmers really want to do their farming on the ground and produce the good quality food that they are producing and not have to deal with all this paperwork.”
Mr Comiskey said that farmers have to pay advisers and Teagasc and are then left waiting to be paid themselves.
“Now they don't know where they stand and if they have too much money got and whether they have to pay some of it back and then along with that it affects their accounts when they're doing their accounting at the end of the year because they could be getting another ACRES payment in November and all that has to add up.
“It's a really difficult time for farmers. You have EU regulations, the Department of Agriculture and all the different outside bodies coming to collect and all have to be paid upfront.
“For calves you have two different envelopes; you have to post one to the BVD testing and one ICBF for DNA testing. It's €2.95 per envelope so that's €6 just for postage for one calf and then for the test, €12 per calf. It all adds up,” he said.