Funding for Burren farmers ‘critical’

A government minister has endorsed the concept of farmers in the Burren being paid to create pristine conditions to allow rare and wild flowers grow in the area.

Over the past four years, 160 Burren farmers have shared a €4m windfall from the State for upkeeping their land to allow Burren flowers flourish.

At a ceremony in Carron in the Burren yesterday, Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan warned, if the funding doesn’t continue for the farmers, the progress witnessed in the Burren environment over the past number of years may be reversed.