A group of environmental and conservation experts will today tour wetland areas of south Roscommon to examine the problems facing farmers in the area with lands designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).
The farmers, who live in the river Suck valley, are complaining that restrictions being placed on their activities by the Office of Public Works will prevent virtually any kind of farming in their areas.
They also say the compensation being offered for changing their practices £15 an acre - is unacceptable, given the extent of the mandatory restrictions being imposed on them.
Most of the farmers are already in the voluntary Rural Environment Protection Scheme under which they undertake to farm in an environmentally sensitive way for which they receive £50 an acre from the EU.
As most of the areas have also been designated National Heritage Areas, an additional payment of £12 an acre is being paid. The farmers' difficulty arises with the conditions being imposed on them by the Special Areas of Conservation status.
According to one of the worst hit farmers in the area, Mr Sean Treacy, Ballinturley, Athleague, Co Roscommon, the stocking rates and a ban on all fertilisers will mean that less than one-third of his farm will be available for conventional farming.
"I am very proud that my land has been designated as a Special Area of Conservation, but the restrictions mean that it will be very difficult to get a living from it," he said.
"Some of my neighbours are in an even more difficult situation. One of them is being left with only one small field out of his acreage. The level of compensation does not in any way meet the losses we will suffer here. "The controls being imposed on us will just freeze us in time. We will not be able to carry on farming even at the reduced levels we have agreed to under the Rural Environment Protection Scheme," he said.
Last week, following pressure from the group through the Irish Farmers' Association, the Deputy President of the IFA, Mr Michael Slattery, met the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Ms de Valera, to discuss the issue.
A statement after the meeting said the discussions had been aimed at bringing pressure on the Government to seek a speedy and successful conclusion in its negotiations with the EU over the SACs.
Mr Slattery said it was almost six months since a Government agreement was reached on a compensation package for up to 10,000 farmers who own 500,000 hectares of land proposed as SACs under the EU Habitats Directive.
He said that with the designations of SACs due to be formalised at the end of this month it was necessary that a financial package be put in place for farmers whose incomes will be affected by the strict farming conditions laid down in the designated areas.
Department of Agriculture sources said yesterday that agreement had already been reached with hill farmers in Connemara and the Burren, but agreement on compensation for wetlands and callows was still under discussion.
A special investigation team from the Wildlife Section of the OPW, the Department of Agriculture and Food, Teagasc, REPS Planners and the Irish Wildbird Conservancy, will tour the area today and meet farming groups in Athlone.