Snow storm damage could force farmers out of business

Snow storm damage could force farmers out of business

17 April 2013

A WARNING has been issued that farmers who had sheds and other out buildings damaged during last month’s severe storms could be forced out of business.

South Down Assemblyman John McCallister is urging Stormont Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill to provide farmers whose properties were damaged with urgent financial aid to allow repairs to be carried out.

He is also urging the government department to enter talks with insurance providers to have money provided for farmers, warning this needs to happen urgently before farmers are put out of business.

Mr. McCallister made the appeal at the Assembly when Miss O’Neill faced a series of questions on why it took three days after the recent snow storms started for a relief operation to deliver feed to stranded animals to get underway.

He told Miss O’Neill that he was very concerned about the lack of information in her Assembly statement about the structural damage on farms. He said this is a key issue which has to be addressed.

“I know farms the Minister visited in South Down suffered extensive structural damage and we must find a way of helping these farmers before they go to the wall,” he declared.

The South Down MLA also expressed disappointment at the Minister’s Assembly response that her department’s £5m financial aid scheme would address livestock losses, but not farm buildings.

Miss O’Neill said farmers who lost out buildings as a result of last month’s storms should be compensated by their respective insurance companies, but confirmed the financial aid package she was bringing forward was for for the loss of livestock, not the loss of buildings.

Mr. McCallister said there has to be a wider debate between the Department of Agriculture and insurance providers and wants some of the Minister’s £5m aid package to used to cover repairing structural damage.