Farmers in counties Tyrone and Derry submitted applications to DAERA indicating that 1,080ha of land was damaged by the floods that hit the northwest at the end of August.

On enquiry, a department spokesperson confirmed that 223 farm businesses in NI submitted force majeure forms, necessary for the land still to receive payments under area-based schemes.

Meanwhile, following a meeting with department officials last week, Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer said that the preferred option within DAERA for an aid package for flood affected farmers is a scheme funded from the NI block grant.

Other options have been looked at, including reopening existing schemes within the Rural Development Programme (RDP) and amending the RDP to include a Farm Recovery Fund like the scheme made available to flood-affected farmers in England in early 2016.

However, funding a scheme from RDP requires approval from Brussels, which could take considerable time and it would not apply retrospectively to cover the costs of recovery work already undertaken by farmers.

The EU Solidarity Fund for natural disasters is understood to have been ruled out as the cost of the damage in NI does not exceed the €721m threshold required for the region to be eligible for the fund.

Block grant

A NI block grant aid package would not require permission from the European Commission and could fund work already carried out by farmers. “We are telling farmers to take photos and keep good records of flood damage and recovery work for a potential aid scheme,” McAleer said.

A package would be capped at €15,000 per farm business under EU de-minimus state aid rules. It would also require an executive to be in place at Stormont, or else a direct rule minister to be in post. “There is no scheme worked up at the minute, so we are not at that stage, but approval would be needed at some point,” McAleer said.