Irish farmers have put a high price on land the Government wants to develop for the non-national road network, writes Tim O'Brien
The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), which secured a landmark multi-million euro compensation deal with the Government over land required for the National Roads Programme, is now seeking a similar deal for land needed for the non-national roads programme.
Under the farmers' 2001 agreement, negotiated by then IFA leader Tom Parlon, payments are made for goodwill, injurious affection, severance, disturbance and "new for old" buildings, as well as the market value of the land.
In the category of "goodwill" payments alone the payment of €5,000 an acre added some €29 million to the cost of the National Roads Programme between 2001 and 2006.
In 2004, it emerged that farmers in the midwest had received more than €36,000 per acre for land with "low hope" development value. The National Roads Authority said the deal had resulted in land costs for road building rising from 10 to 23 per cent of project costs, the highest levels in Europe.
The deal is not universally applied outside the farming community and non-farming families have complained that when they lost their homes to road projects, they suffered severe financial hardship and were unable to secure even replacement values.
Now the IFA is to seek a new deal for farmers whose lands are required for non-national road works. Non-national roads are the smaller roads which carry 60 per cent of all traffic, and represent 94 per cent of the roads network.
The non-national roads programme is, however, nothing like the value of the national roads programme, amounting to just over half a billion euro per year, in recent years.
A spokesman for the IFA confirmed yesterday that IFA president Padraig Walshe had spoken of his desire to see a new "code of practice" put in place to cover compulsory purchase orders. The spokesman added that what was being sought was a system similar to the 2001 agreement, which he said had been very successful for farmers and Government.
Asked specifically about "new for old" buildings, goodwill payments and suchlike, the spokesman confirmed that the IFA wanted these elements included in the new code.
But the spokesman said a large part of the deal was the streamlining of arrangements whereby payments follow possession of the land. He instanced a number of strategic non-national roads, such as the R158 Summerhill to Kilcock road, on which work has begun but farm owners have not yet been paid.
He said similar works were planned for other roads, such as the Waterford Airport Road, and the Edenderry to Enfield Road in counties Offaly and Kildare.
"It is about speeding up the process and putting in place a system which has worked," he said.
While the 2001 deal negotiated by Mr Parlon was subject to criticism in non-farming quarters, it also came under fire from some farmers.
Although payments of up to five times the initial price of the land were agreed, in a number of cases, particularly over lands required for the Fermoy by-pass in Co Cork and the Carrickmacross by-pass in Co Monaghan, the proposed payments were deemed insufficient by farmers, who wanted development land prices instead.
The farmers argued that the only replacement land available to them in their area was development land and the level of compensation should reflect this.
The Minister responsible for roads in 2001 was Noel Dempsey, who was then Minister for the Environment. As the current Minister for Transport, he again has responsibility for roads.