The European Parliament is to take up the case of eight Galway farmers who have been left out of pocket for up to €10,000 each by the findings of Department of Agriculture inspectors because of the grazing quality of their commonage.

The farmers, who all have shares in the Keelderry commonage in Slieve Aughty, Co Galway, had their 2011 and 2012 Single Farm Payment and DAS payments withheld after Department officials reported in October 2010 that the commonage had no forage to graze. This was despite the officials reporting horses grazing on the land on the day of the inspection.

Prior to the inspection, the Keelderry commonage was deemed to be 90pc forage and adjoining commonages and enclosed land of similar composition are still today deemed to be as much as 95pc forage.

Following appeals, the Department of Agriculture revised its opinion in 2011 and declared that the Keelderry land consisted of 10pc forage. Since then, some of the shareholders have had their entitlements stacked by the Department in order to receive their payment on a smaller acreage.

In one case, a farmer brought his case to the High Court to secure his payment and costs were awarded against the Department of Agriculture.

However, others still remain out of pocket by €4,000-€10,000 each and on Thursday, the affected farmers took their case to the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament through MEP Jim Higgins.

ILLOGICAL

Mr Higgins requested an independent investigation into the “gross injustice” and “unfair ad-hoc payments” to the eight shareholders.

“They have had no real opportunity for redress due to an illogical appeal process within the Department which could take five years – a ridiculous amount of time for a group of small farmers to have to wait,” Mr Higgins told the committee.

Barrister Theresa Murphy told MEPs on the Appeals Committee that the farmers had been frustrated at every turn trying to have their case heard. She said the case had been prevented from reaching the courts because it was tied down in a lengthy Department internal inquiry since 2010, which could last five years.

The Petitions Committee is to write to Minister Simon Coveney requesting that he examine the Keelderry case in detail.

The Keelderry farmers claim their case could have serious consequences for commonage shareholders throughout Ireland and even farmers on enclosed land of a similar quality.

“If Keelderry has only 10pc forage, then there are other commonages in serious trouble,” warned one of the eight who did not wish to be named.

“Keelderry and the Slieve Aughty commonages are seen to be better than those in Connemara, which in turn are better than parts of Donegal.”

“There are thousands of hectares of similar land in farms and commonages. If they are all found to be 10pc forage, it will wipe out [hill] farming in the west of Ireland completely,” he claimed.

(Source – Irish Independent – Caitriona Murphy – 22/10/2013)