Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue for debate. January and February 2014 will be remembered for severe storm damage and flooding right across the country. Thankfully, the storms have gone and the weather has settled down, but in one townland on the outskirts of the village of Newmarket-on-Fergus, at Ballycar, flood waters remain extremely high. These floods are a recurring problem which are having a detrimental effect on residents, on farmland and on the rail line between Limerick and Ennis, which is part of the western rail corridor. Five households are inaccessible, hundreds of acres of farmland remain under water and the rail service has been closed since 2 February and is not expected to re-open until the end of May. The extremely wet winter has dramatically increased the water levels of Ballycar Lough, resulting in meters of water covering the rail line and flooding farmland and the public road.

A solution to this problem needs to be found. In my view, no agency wants to take responsibility for the issue. In the meantime, passengers who turn up to Ennis railway station are forced to take a bus to Limerick and vice versa. Much has been invested in terms of marketing and physical infrastructure to get this rail-line re-opened and to get passengers engaged with it, but all of that hard work is now threatened. Sadly, further money will be required to address the damage caused by flood waters to the train tracks when those waters recede. Equally, families living in Ballycar have to take a cross-country route through neighbouring properties to get in and out of their homes, sometimes two or three times a day. One family has twins under the age of two and it is a very difficult task for them each day. This is a recurring problem that needs to be resolved.

It is important that a long-term solution is found and that local views are listened to. From speaking with local landowners and residents, I know they are more than willing to play an active role in coming up with a solution. It is my understanding that Irish Rail presented the OPW with an in-depth report focused on the flooding issues at Ballycar. This report has put forward a number of options which need to be explored and put into action. A swallow hole on the outskirts of Newmarket-on-Fergus needs to be cleaned and some sort of filter must be incorporated into it to prevent further clogging. Local landowners have put forward the view that an additional drain could be opened to link into the existing water channels, thus removing the flood from Ballycar by moving the excess water to tributaries feeding the River Fergus. I note and welcome Clare County Council's commitment, subject to funding being released, to raise the road at three different locations in Ballycar in an effort to keep the public road open.

What I am asking for today is that an official from the OPW would be appointed from the Mungret office to co-ordinate all agencies which have a interest in this matter, such as Clare County Council, Irish Rail and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, together with local landowners and residents, with a view to setting up a working group to seek a solution to this issue, and for the OPW to be the responsible agency to implement the solution. Rail users using the national rail network, specifically the Ennis to Limerick line, residents of Ballycar, landowners and the ordinary taxpayers want and deserve a solution to this problem. The flooding at Ballycar cannot be resolved without one agency taking a lead role and that agency must be the OPW.

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