THE Cathaoirleach of Limerick County Council has called on the Government to review how State and European grant aid for farmers is distributed in light of what he described as “unprecedented challenges faced by the West of Ireland farming community”.
West Limerick farmer and Councillor John Sheahan said that farmers who owned land classified as Special Protection Areas (SPA) are at a disadvantage as the funding allocated through schemes such as CAP Pillar 2 and AEOS are “insufficient” to cover both the loss of revenue from not being able to farm the land or the cost of preserving and protecting the SPA.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.