Vol. 527 No. 3
38 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he has carried out an assessment of the damage and losses to agriculture caused by flooding during the period since 1 September 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28405/00]
The recent flooding caused localised hardship to many people in both urban and rural areas. My Department's regional inspectors have reported that while many crops suffered from flooding, it is unlikely that lasting damage was done. The harvesting of root crops and the sowing of winter cereals has suffered significant disruption. As it would not have been appropriate to single out any particular section of the community for special attention, the Government initiated an ex gratia scheme of humanitarian assistance to relieve cases of severe hardship. The Irish Red Cross Society is implementing this scheme, details of which have been published in the national newspapers. The scheme will alleviate the most serious effects of the widespread flooding. The applications must be submitted before next Friday, 8 December 2000.
Do I take it that the Minister of State's reply means that no assessment has been carried out of the damage to agriculture? Will he indicate whether the scheme, as advertised by the Government, includes any element for damage to crops in the ground or for the losses that might arise from the inability to harvest those crops?
As usual, Deputy Dukes is adopting a negative approach. The Department's regional inspectors submitted reports on the position in their areas of operation. They requested information on livestock losses, crop losses, damage to farm buildings and food storage, be it silage or hay. All that information was submitted. The job of doing this work has been given to the Irish Red Cross Society and it will be done on a humanitarian basis. Reports have been submitted in respect of each area affected by the flooding and Teagasc has indicated whether there was damage. In most of the crop cases, the damage was done already because there was such a high level of rainfall during September and October, which prevented the harvesting of crops, and in cases where the water would have run off within a week, it should not have done too much damage.
I am delighted that in response to a supplementary question the Minister of State has answered my first question. He indicated that certain assessments have been carried out. Has anyone done an evaluation to try to put together information that has come in to give us a reasonably accurate or indicative picture of the overall extent of the losses? Does the scheme that has been advertised in the public papers, to which the Minister of State referred, include provision for compensation for damage or loss of crops in the ground or loss arising from the fact that crops cannot be harvested?
I emphasise that this is not a compensation scheme, it is a scheme of humanitarian assistance in cases of severe hardship.
So the answer to my last question is "no".
No, not necessarily. If the situation causes severe hardship, it will be assessed. This is not a compensation scheme, it is a humanitarian response by the Government to relieve cases of severe hardship.
What will be accepted as constituting "severe hardship"?
The Deputy is moving outside the scope of the question.
That will be a matter for the Irish Red Cross Society to assess in that situation based on the information and back-up it will have from Teagasc and other agencies.
The problem has been passed to the Irish Red Cross Society.
We now move to Question No. 39.
The Minister of State has washed his hands of it.
A previous Government of which the Deputy's party was a member brought in the Irish Red Cross Society in 1996.
The Minister of State has totally washed his hands of it.
