LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago

THE DÁIL HAS heard that hill farmers in Co Waterford face “exorbitant” rent hikes amounting to thousands of euro from their landlord, the Duke of Devonshire.

The farmers tend to land on the Lismore estate, which is owned by the duke, Peregrine Cavendish – who is also the owner of the nearby Lismore Castle – is seeking to raise rent for some farmers from €520 per hectare to €5,200.

Cavendish is reportedly a personal friend of the UK’s King Charles, who has made private visits in the past to Lismore Castle. The Cavendish’s ancestral home is Chatsworth House, near Sheffield, in northern England.

At the centre of the dispute is farmers’ anger that their rent is, they say, getting progressively increased over the past two years.

Farmers previously paid €5 for their lease to Lismore Estate before this increased three-fold in 2024 to €15. Therefore it means that, taken over a longer period of time, the total rent hike is viewed by farmers as more than a 1,000% increase.

That has made the latest move to raise it to €5,200 the final straw for the farmers on the land.

A spokesperson for the Lismore Estate said a rent review was conducted in 2023 which informed the proposed rents for tenants of the Knockmealdown Mountains on the Lismore Estate, up to and including 2029.

“This proposal was endorsed by an independent agricultural consultant, and we are working with our tenants on its gradual phased implementation,” the estate said.

“This is the first increase in rents for tenants of the Knockmealdown Mountains since 2017.”

Raised in the Dáil

Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon told the Dáil yesterday that he does “hope a resolution can be found” in the dispute, as he backed his department’s position on not wading into the row.

Waterford TD Conor McGuinness claimed in the Dáil yesterday that the standoff has “echoes of darker times in our history” in how “absentee landlords” treated farmers renting their land.

“I want to raise the issue of hill farmers on the Knockmealdown Mountains in Co Waterford,” the Sinn Féin deputy told the minister, “They are currently in dispute with a landlord over exorbitant rent increases.”

McGuinness said he accepted that Heydon as Agriculture Minister will not intervene, but claimed the farmers in question are being held “over a barrel” because the Department of Agriculture is not issuing any farm payments while the dispute goes on.

As some farmers are refusing to pay the increase, it’s claimed Lismore Estate has refused to provide documentation proving they are leasing the land. The Department of Agriculture will not provide the payments to farmers without this documentation.

“The department needs to take a realistic look at this. I understand the limitations on the minister’s ability to intervene but, if the department is to be neutral in disputes, it should be fully neutral and not hold farmers over a barrel looking for this commonage letter while these disputes are ongoing,”,” McGuinness said to Heydon yesterday.

By withholding the payments, McGuinness said, the department had “effectively taken a side” in the dispute.

“This is effectively the State siding with the landlord,” McGuinness added.

“These farmers rely on that farm payment.”

I am aware of the particular case in Waterford that Deputy McGuinness has raised. It is a bit beyond the scope of this question.

In response, Heydon said that the issue of farm payments “comes down to who is the active farmer” on the land.

“That is the position on that question. I hope a resolution can be found in the near future,” Heydon said.