Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Apologies I could not be here earlier. I was attending the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach for Committee Stage of the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023. I welcome our guests and thank them for making themselves available to the committee to place on the public record the difficulties they have met, again, this year, as they have on many previous occasions. They are seeking for those privileged enough to represent them and others to use the opportunity to ensure that the Government responds more effectively than it has in the past. I last met the good gentlemen when we arranged to meet the Tánaiste in Athlone some weeks ago to present the issue, as my colleagues and I felt necessary, to ensure that the highest level of Government was aware of the plight faced and the immediacy of the problem. This is especially the case for farmers but it is also not lost on communities and businesses in the area because of exceptional flooding. One of the two recommendations we made on that date was to ensure that we use our good offices to put pressure on the Government to bring forward a flood relief fodder scheme. Thankfully, the Cabinet approved one yesterday. Initial comments by the Department in the press release must be expanded upon. We will work closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to ensure that information gets to Save Our Shannon Organisation and that there is the necessary flexibility to meet the demands of those impacted, which was alluded to. From our perspective and from the representations we have had, it was confined to the likes of counties Offaly, Westmeath, Roscommon and east Galway. The witness mentioned issues related to the spin-off from the Brosna and areas of counties Longford and Leitrim, on which we will seek clarification.

The wider issue, of course, is the age-old and defunct entity charged with the responsibility of managing and maintaining the Shannon. As I said when we met last, when you think back to 2011, when the Shannon catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, study began, it was a five-year process during which there was a vast amount of public consultation, engagement and relevant expertise from State and non-State organisations which made presentations, as did relevant stakeholders, including the witnesses, I am sure. One thing evident and eminent during that period and as it came to a conclusion was the agreement of all parties that participated that they would support and seek to ensure the implementation of whatever recommendations emanated. Included in those recommendations, as was alluded to by Deputy Canney, were flood relief schemes in some towns and villages. We have seen the completion of the one in Athlone and some works in Banagher. Pinch-points were also recognised on which work was recommended to help alleviate the age-old and increasingly catastrophic problem on a regular basis. They have not been implemented. I appreciate what Deputy Canney is saying too. In the area of planning, not only residential but commercial and, in this instance, infrastructural, there is a definite deficit in the existing legislation that has to be addressed. The extensive Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2023 is in the offing. We are long enough waiting for it. It is something I have been championing over the past number of years. It is due to come to the House in the coming weeks. That should not be confined to members addressing the deficiencies in residential planning, be they problems associated with An Bord Pleanála, the lack of a statutory time period for decisions to be made by An Bord Pleanála or the extensive overuse and exploitation by many - especially objectors - of the judicial court system. Especially during an emergency, not only in residential development but in infrastructural capacity and infrastructural improvements such as this, a planning system should not curtail the necessary emergency works. That will require much effort and input by all of us with a responsibility in this regard to ensure that the essential amendments are made and that provision is made for emergency works, CFRAM studies and their implementation as a result of the extensive consultation that took place. They should not then be subject to another period of four or five years concerning the manner in which the public can engage in a consultation process. In the meantime, the State has to carry the cost of the flooding that occurs while we wait for that. That cannot go on.

The point I wanted to make, specifically, relates to that scenario and the goodwill the witnesses and the likes of them showed during that study process to adhere to the recommendations and support their implementation. Those who sit on the management and monitoring of the Shannon, such as Waterways Ireland, the Office of Public Works, OPW, the ESB and various local authorities, should also include representatives from Save Our Shannon Organisation so that it is at least part of the so-called decision-making process or the means by which levels are agreed, set or responded to when there certain amounts of rainfall are in place or predicted. Save Our Shannon Organisation has no hand, act or part and many would argue, including me, that Save Our Shannon Organisation has a better appreciation, having lived through it and tried to make a livelihood from the Shannon, as their generations did before them. That asset and intelligence are lost in that process.

During that meeting, I implored the Tánaiste to meet Waterways Ireland and relevant stakeholders from a State responsibility perspective to address that issue, as the State has not lived up to the commitments and expectations of the likes of Save Our Shannon Organisation regarding the CFRAM recommendations. In other words, Save Our Shannon Organisation bought into the concept and agreed to abide by the recommendations on the understanding that the State would implement them, notwithstanding issues concerning planning, which is our problem and their problem. Save Our Shannon Organisation members are still stuck with age-old systems that have not acted on those recommendations and have a responsibility to monitor and manage. Save Our Shannon Organisation needs to be part of that process. I hope, in the coming weeks, to hear the Tánaiste respond to the effort made on Save Our Shannon Organisation's behalf as to the response of the Government to that request. In the absence of responding positively to that, I hope it will find other means and mechanisms to compensate for not having had at its disposal the wherewithal, irrespective of the planning legislation, to implement the CFRAMS recommendations.