Fearon welcomes progress of Land Compensation Bill

Sinn Féin South Armagh MLA Megan Fearon has welcomed the decision of Regional Development Minister Michelle McIlveen to introduce the Land Acquisition and Compensation (Amendment) Bill.

If implemented, the new policy would entitle landowners who have their land vested to an additional 10% compensation payment.

Fearon told Newry Times, “The current system is unfair to people whose land has been vested and does not take into account the loss experienced by farmers who have taken land in conacre. Also, the current Farm Loss Payment scheme only operates when there is an entire farm vested.

“The DRD committee recently confirmed that the compensation would normally go to the person who is actively farming the land and has a ‘qualifying interest’. In the case of land taken in conacre, the conacre agreement must be for at least one year for the active farmer to qualify.

She added, “Given that the recent budget identified a number of key flagship projects to advance over the next number of years, the introduction of this amendment is timely and is an acknowledgement of the impact that vesting orders can have on people’s lives.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=54837

Posted by Newry Times News on Feb 18 2016. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry