Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague Senator Murphy, who raised the issue Lough Funshinagh in the Chamber when I was taking Order of Business a number of weeks ago. I was struck by his impassioned plea to help people in the local community, so I visited the site two weeks ago.Matthew Beatty and Geraldine Murray took me around. We visited four locations around the lake and the homeowners there. Nothing prepared me for what I saw when I visited the site. Senator Eugene Murphy had said to me that the videos and photographs do not do it justice and he was right. People are effectively living in a swamp. Green algae is growing on the road on the top of the water. The trees are dead. Farm buildings look like they are out at sea, with waves lapping up against them. People's homes and livelihoods are gone. Two elderly neighbours are cut off. They cannot actually see each other anymore because the road they used to travel to meet each other every day is now flooded and impassable. It felt wholly inadequate to be there that day and to tell people we are waiting for advice to the Government from the Attorney General, that there is a court process in place. That does not cut it. This needs to get sorted quickly. There has to be a sense of urgency about this. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, visited the area. The Tánaiste will be on site in the next couple of weeks. The political will has to be there. If environmental legislation is blocking this then the law is wrong. There has to be a humanitarian aspect to this. There has to be common sense in how we deal with these situations because when people look on from beyond Lough Funshinagh and other parts of the country and see environmental laws allowing us to leave people living in a situation where their homes are flooded and their farmland is lost, then we have lost the room on dealing with the climate issue. This is bigger than just Lough Funshinagh. This is how we ensure that we look after people, that we protect homes, businesses and communities as well as addressing climate. However, there has to be a common-sense approach. I urge the Minister of State, please get this sorted sooner rather than later and do not allow this to proceed at a snail's pace because the people cannot wait.