Provide grant for potato farmers hit by bad weather - O’Sullivan

Cork South West TD Christy O’Sullivan has called on the Department of Agriculture to provide grant aid for potato farmers hit by the recent severe weather. A significant amount of the national potato crop remained unharvested by the time the cold weather hit and the freezing conditions have ruined large portions of that crop.

“The Department of Agriculture really has to provide some form of funding for the potato farmers, they’ve been devastated by the recent weather,” said Deputy O’Sullivan. “No one could have anticipated the severe weather conditions we’ve just gone through. Unfortunately it is estimated that as much as 30% of the national potato crop was still in the ground by the time the snow and ice hit this country. That not only made the crop impossible to harvest but it also killed a huge portion of the potatoes that remained in the ground.”

“Given all that our farmers have had to go through during 2009 I really think it is vital that a grant is made available to our potato farmers. We don’t want to see them or their families suffer. I will be bringing this up with Minister Smith but I really hope that the Department can find some way of compensating these farmers.”

“I have heard first hand of many Cork potato farmers who have been very badly hit by the weather conditions. These people have lost tonnes of crop. Hundreds of farmers right around the country will also have been impacted. We need to make sure that it is not our farmers who pay the price because of the unexpected bad weather and I hope the Department will be able to devise a suitable package to lessen the blow these farmers have suffered.”

“I understand that the Department of Agriculture is studying a submission from the IFA on this subject at the moment and is due to make an assessment on the matter over the next few days. I hope that this submission will be successful and there will be some form of compensation provided,” Deputy O’Sullivan concluded.