Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses to the committee. We are sorry they have had to come in here because of their plight. It is something with which I can very much empathise. Indeed, when I highlighted other rivers in County Kerry, I always mentioned the fact that the Shannon had not been cleaned out or dredged since it was last done by the English in the 1880s. Likewise in Kerry, we have several rivers that flood. I will give an example of one river, the River Flesk. Going back to 2008 or 2009, it was coming out onto the N22. It flooded the N22 for a day or two and that is the main road that takes people from Tralee through Killarney and on to Cork. It was holding up ambulances which had to go around it and there were delays. Maybe that could be classed as an emergency but the water used to go down and the ambulances could get past again. I took deputation after deputation into the town hall in Killarney when I was a councillor for the Killarney electoral area and we got all kinds of answers that this would only reduce the level of the flood by 10 mm. Finally, they agreed to let us clean the river but all they allowed us to do was to clear the bushes. That was done with the help of the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran. We brought him down and showed him what was going on. He gave us the funding for a minor flood relief scheme to clear the river and in 2018 we did it. They would not let us clear the silt or the heaps of gravel but we cleared the bushes and a great job was done. That was in 2018. The national primary route has not been flooded since. The floods are not anywhere near as much as on the lands. There were lands that were flooded for days but the levels used to go down again when it stopped raining. That is a perfect example. Not only did it reduce by 10 mm, the water would have to have been reduced by 10 ft. when there was a flood. That is the gospel truth. We have had several days of heavy rain, day after day, even this year and there is no sign of the river coming near the road.

We have several rivers. There is one particular river, the mouth of which is blocked. It is flooding hundreds of acres of land and they are saying we cannot touch that because it is a special area of conservation, SAC. That will never be touched now. It is so ridiculous. People's livelihoods and lands are being devalued just because somebody else mentions climate change and all different reasons. They will throw everything at you and say you cannot do it. One poor man was so bad, he went into the river himself. They threatened to inform the gardaí if he did not put back whatever few loads of gravel he had taken out with the tractor. He left it back in the river again. That is what is going on.

As to climate change, and Deputies Fitzmaurice and Canney said this as well, this is another obstacle. We in Kerry know that we have had flood situations before. There was a house in the national park in 1860 which was completely washed away. It was rebuilt and the flood does not come anywhere near it now. There was a townland in Gneeveguilla back in 1897. There were no combustible engines around at that time but all the bog in Gneeveguilla, known as the place of the moving bog, was washed all the way down into the lakes of Killarney, 12 miles away. One family's house was completely washed away and only one child survived because she had gone to a neighbour's house. That house was washed away and the whole family was wiped out except for one member. These events happened. Now we are told it is all because of climate change and that this is why we are all being flooded, including the people of Midleton. The facts are that the rivers are not being cleaned out. I am glad some people in Midleton and in County Louth were compensated. Hopefully, a precedence has been set so that everyone else who will be flooded will have to be paid too because we are going to have a lot more of it. Unless they raise the roads and lift up the houses, there will be way more flooding.

There is a big problem here and Mr. Silke mentioned it. I am interested in this and I am sorry for the witnesses' plight. Their land is being devalued and they are getting no real satisfaction for it. It is like all the other people and the hen harrier designation or whatever it is, it is like daylight robbery. Some people's houses are raided at night and their money is taken but what is happening here is open daylight robbery. Talking about 25 or 30 acres, do the committee members know what it costs to buy that amount of land now? It costs €700,000 or €800,000 for maybe 35 acres and the production from that is lost all the time. What is going on in our country is absolutely ridiculous. We are talking about the upcoming local and the European elections. I am sure someone will take up this issue and run on it alone. It is only common sense. If you throw marbles into a bottle of water, the water will soon come out over the top. It is only common sense and these rivers will have to be cleaned out.

I mentioned our river, the River Flesk, out of which we cleaned the bushes. There are way more fish in it now because fish need daylight.