The flooding situation is very bad at the minute around Lough Funshinagh, in Co Roscommon, local farmer and councillor Laurence Fallon has said.

“It is a half a metre higher than [it was] this time last year which is not good as it’s usually January when the rise [in floodwater] happens,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

He repeated calls for drainage works to be carried out to alleviate the floodwaters.

He stated that to “protect the environment and farmers in the area, those that have put up legal arguments against the drainage works need to see the damage that is being done on the ground”.

“Farmers are losing out on their [direct] payments year-on-year due to the flooding. There is support from Roscommon County Council with pumps for houses, but the real solution is to lower the lake,” he said.

Pumps are on

Padraig Beattie, a local sheep farmer, is plagued with floods from Lough Funshinagh year after year.

“Last year, we only started pumping the water in January when it started to come up around the house, but this year, after such a bad summer and autumn, the pump is on two months earlier.”

The water level is “nearly three feet higher than it was on the same day last year owing to the rainfall.”

“We are significantly ahead of last year, and the pump has been turned on since the end of October.”

Beattie stated that he had “lost a total of four acres since 2016, with an increase of two acres in the winter months since 2021”.

“My fear this year is that the main farmyard will flood and without access to the yard, it will be very difficult to keep on farming.”