Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the summer flooding that took place at the Shannon Callows. Once again, farmers and their lands have been absolutely devastated by flooding over the summer months. Farmers are under huge financial pressure. They face absolute wipe-out. They have no silage, hay or fodder for the winter months. They urgently need support from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Save our Shannon organisation has written to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, three times and still awaits his response. I am asking that these farmers be supported by the Department in the short term. In the longer term, I am asking for a single agency for the River Shannon to manage it once and for all and that one agency would be responsible for it. We brought forward legislation nearly three years ago. The then Minister said he wanted to bring forward his own legislation and asked us to give him nine months to do that. We are nearly three years down the line and there is still no legislation for the management of the River Shannon. We cannot keep allowing flooding to devastate farmers' homes and lands over and over again. I ask for an update on the legislation.

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