No commitment to compensation for landowners affected by Roscommon fires
Turf banks, family farms, fencing and forestry investments were damaged by blazed which ripped through the area last month during a dry spell of weather. A large amount of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) containing a rich variety of flora and fauna was also burned.
Minister Healy-Rae described the damage as 'a very serious situation that has impacted people's land, livelihoods and long-term environmental assets' but did not commit to providing state compensation.
A well-attended public meeting in Gorthaganny heard that most of the land burned in the fires was not insured. There is currently no government compensation available for landowners who lose forestry to fire.
Minister Healy-Rae said the Department of Agriculture would continue to engage closely on the matter. He also confirmed that district inspectors would be deployed to assess the damage on the ground.
'We have to learn lessons from this and take every step to ensure proper support, coordination, and prevention going forward. My department will continue to engage constructively, and I've asked our local forestry teams to prioritise inspections in the area,' said the Kerry-based TD.
Speaking on Shannonside FM, Roscommon-Galway TD Martin Daly said there was 'no indication' that any compensation would be granted to landowners.
'In fairness to Minister Healy-Rae, he was honest with people there and I think the people who have suffered losses, which some of the representatives from Gorthaganny had, they understood what he was saying to them,' he said.
'Now, they may not have liked all the answers he gave them, but it was an honest conversation.'
The National Parks and Wildlife Service have assessed the area and are preparing a remediation plan for the damage done to the SAC.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
‘Sad to see him go' – GAA fans emotional seeing Michael D Higgins attend last men's All-Ireland final as President
GAA fans felt a twinge of sadness at Michael D Higgins conducting his presidential duties for the last time before a men's All-Ireland final. Viewers nationwide reacted to him being escorted out to shake the hand of every starting player 2 He was accompanied onto the Croke Park pitch by GAA President Jarlath Burns Credit: @TheSundayGame 2 Captain Gavin White was outstanding from start to finish for Kerry The 84-year-old has served in the role since 2011 so he's become part of the furniture on big sporting occasions such as All-Ireland final matchdays. Whomever succeeds him in November will have big shoes to fill in spite of his diminutive stature. The former Labour TD's enjoyed widespread popularity despite being arguably the most outspoken President in the history of the state. The broad sense that he's been an excellent representative for the country on the national and international stage was reflected in the replies to RTE clipping his last walk-out before a men's decider. Read More On GAA Aón labelled him: "A national treasure." Similarly, Karen hailed: "Sorry to see him go. A great President of Ireland." Rosemary added: "Brilliant President, he has represented our country brilliantly." Lastly, another Karen commented: "Well done true great president Michael D Higgins great president of Ireland. "A true leader he was and we will sadly miss him as he steps down. Our Irish president well done for everything you've done for our country." His last men's showpiece was the first one played under the new rules that have revitalised Gaelic football as a spectacle across the 2025 inter-county season. Most read in GAA Football The full-time scoreline demonstrated that this another match where attacking play was encouraged and allowed to flourish as the Kingdom It was the FIFTH time manager Jack O'Connor has led his county to the promised land. Cork hurlers catch strays during Jack O'Connor's triumphant RTE interview after Kerry outclass Donegal Afterwards he gave a passionate interview reflecting on their year as a whole - and inadvertently The 64-year-old branded it a "tough ole year" as he cited But the veteran boss noted that he sensed a good feeling off his players throughout the morning in the lead-up to He also pinpointed CORK CALL-OUT It was when recalling something he said during the interval that the inadvertent jibe at O'Connor said bluntly: "I think that two-pointer was a massive score by David. That was a massive fill-up at half-time to put us up by seven. "Then we said to each other in the dressing room that what happened to Cork last weekend wasn't going to happen to us. "We were going to come out and play and try to win the second half. And we did win the second half by three points so overall two good halves." O'Connor's was the only eye-catching post-match interview either as a pumped-up Paudie Clifford
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Coalition warned against diluting contentious Occupied Territories Bill
The Government will be warned not to allow the potential for legal challenges to be used as an excuse to water down the legislation known as the Occupied Territories Bill . The Oireachtas foreign affairs committee will this week publish its report on a proposal to ban trade with illegally occupied territories in Palestine. The report, finalised on Friday, is understood to recommend widening the legislation to include a ban on services as well as goods. There have been stark warnings from business lobby groups that such a measure could damage the Republic's trading relationship with the US and cause economic harm to Irish businesses and households. The Occupied Territories Bill is now undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny Listen | 41:13 The committee will tell the Government to model the ban on trade with illegal settlements in Palestine on 2014 trade restrictions with Russia regarding illegally occupied territories in Ukraine. The committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart , which did not have statistics on the volume of trade in services between the State and illegally occupied territories, will call on Minister for Trade Simon Harris to collate and publish such information. It will also tell Mr Harris to establish what kind of backlash the State would face in terms of trade and diplomacy should it ban trade with the occupied Palestinian territories. [ Republic joins 25 states urging end to Gaza war Opens in new window ] Ministers will also be advised to consider what defences could be available to a business charged with an offence under the proposed law. . It is understood that the committee believes further work is required from the Government before the law could be enacted. And it will ask that Attorney General Rossa Fanning's advice on the complex Bill is 'expedited' so it can move forward as a matter of urgency. During meetings before the Dáil rose for the summer recess, Mr Lahart was critical of 'misinformation' about the Bill and the State's motivation for passing it – much of which was repeated by senior US political figures. Chairwoman of US House Republicans Lisa McClaine described the Bill as a type of 'extreme anti-Semitic hate'. [ How life in the West Bank is deteriorating for Palestinians Opens in new window ] It is understood that the committee's report will call on the Government to explain the motivation behind the Bill to European Union and international colleagues, while also lobbying Brussels for further collective EU action against Israel. The committee will propose a Government-funded public communications campaign for domestic and international audiences to explain the facts of the Bill and to challenge misinformation spread about it.
Irish Examiner
7 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
John Whelan: Tariff-free services exports are key to growth for now
Across the business front, particularly the digital providers, an audible sigh of relief can be noticed as it became clear that the EU's €93bn list of countermeasure tariffs against the US does not include services trade. The EU's countermeasures will automatically click into force on August 7, said the European Commission, should the US fail to drop the Trump-threatened 30% tariff on all EU exports by then. The big worry for Ireland's services companies, which are mainly US multinationals, accounting for €115bn in exports sales in the first three months of the year as reported by the Central Statistics Office earlier in the month, was that the EU countermeasure tariffs on the US would include services. This would have had major implications for the many thousands employed in the sector, likely forcing relocations to other non-EU countries, as well as significantly hitting the Government's corporation tax take. Now the full weight of the EU-US tariff war is set to fall on the wide range of manufactured goods, inclusive of food and drinks products, which could impact on sales output to our largest customer the US, and in the process hitting State funding. The implication of this change in trading relationship with the US is the need to bolster support for Ireland's traders in the services sector, in particular, digital trade providers such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Foreign-owned enterprises account for 80% of Ireland's services exports, the second highest of the OECD countries, as reported in its Services Trade Restrictiveness Index report 2025. This leaves Ireland more exposed than most countries to US trade pressures, as the vast majority of these Ireland-based multinationals are US-owned. Retaining these global digital players in Ireland must continue to be a priority for the Government, but also there is an urgent need to do more to develop indigenous Irish companies, to ensure more controllable and sustainable growth of the services exports sector. Amazon scraps plan for plant Amazon's scrapping of its plan to build an industrial plant in Dublin, involving a €300m investment which would employ more than 500, because it did not receive the necessary Government guarantees about power supplies the plant would require, is a clear indicator of the challenges faced in retaining the multinationals in Ireland. This Amazon project loss is a critical blow to our attempts to stay up with the global AI tech race, as the now scuttled project involved the creation of an AI testing and manufacturing facility and not a data centre. It would also have enabled the training of a fresh cohort of employees, who could in the future enable the setting up of indigenous AI start-ups. To date, Enterprise Ireland, which supports Irish-owned companies, has failed to significantly grow the service exporting industry. Enterprise Ireland client companies account for under 2% of our total service trade exports. The other 18% of the services exports from Ireland come from entrepreneurs who have built their export businesses without State support. Many of them depend on good access to digital services platforms provided by the likes of Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which again underscores the critical reliance on the connection with the US. Reducing dependence on the US and deepening EU integration in services could be achieved by encouraging more innovation and stimulating much-needed investment. An easy win should be with the UK, which last year imported €314bn in services, but only €12bn from Ireland. Service sector reforms are, of course, not going to be easy, either in their politics or in their execution. The freedom to establish a company in another EU country and the freedom to provide or receive services in another EU country are already established for many services through the EU Services Directive — but implementation has been weak. Services regulations are complex and highly decentralised. In many EU member states, reforms are often implemented by professional associations, who may have a bias against reforms or even a conflict of interest. Many professions and industries thrive on the fees that regulatory constraints generate — and you and I, as service users, are rarely aware of the costs that these regulations impose on us. Read More Trump and von der Leyen set for crunch meeting on EU-US trade talks
