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

I welcome the people from the OPW and the CFRAMS engineers to today's meeting. It is good to get an opportunity to raise the flooding issues that have been inflicted on the people of County Kerry in recent years. Who is responsible for what? Who is accountable for sorting these problems out? I firmly believe the reasons our rivers are flooding can be linked to the system of cross-compliance whereby farmers and landowners are not allowed to touch their rivers. Inland Fisheries Ireland seems to have amazing power. It has threatened farmers with arrest if they clean out the rivers as they have traditionally done to keep the water flowing. Another threat associated with cross-compliance is that farmers and landowners will lose their single farm payments. This has been going on for 12 or 15 years. Our rivers have become totally clogged over that period. Who is responsible for getting them opened up? I guarantee that the water will not flow until the rivers that are completely clogged with criss-crossing bushes and trees are freed up. Heaps of gravel were always taken out and used for the betterment of farm roadways and things like that, but this has been totally stopped.

Where do we start? We know the OPW is responsible for some rivers. I would like it to deal with the river coming out of Castleisland, which is totally blocked. My understanding is that the OPW is responsible for that river. The CFRAM study that took place across County Kerry suggested that we should leave the river alone and make a flood plain out of a 12-acre field at the back of the town of Castleisland. It made no sense whatsoever to suggest that the river should be allowed to rise, the flood plain should be allowed to flood and a big wall should be built around it to hold it back. Now that has changed and another CFRAM proposal has been made. I do not know whether it will be worthwhile. It is certainly taking a long time to resolve the problems in Castleisland.

We have been told that the OPW does not have a role with regard to the River Flesk. The problem is that we do not know who is responsible for it. The riparian landowners certainly cannot go near it. They will lose their payments if they do. At the same time, the N22, which is the national primary road into Killarney, is frequently blocked. This road is used by all emergency services, including ambulances and fire brigades. I can honestly tell the committee that the road did not sink and the 22 houses that are being flooded did not sink. The river has risen and it will continue to rise. The CFRAM study was supposed to sort all of this out, but we were told three months ago that it could do nothing for Glenflesk. Now, after approximately five years of studies, we are back to square one. People have been waiting and wondering what wonderful action would take place and what would be done. Everyone knows and can see that all that needs to be done is to clear out the river.

When I spoke to the new Minister of State with responsibility for flooding, Deputy Canney, about this matter, he advised me to ask the local authority to submit an application under the minor flood mitigation works scheme. I did so on 22 July last and I thought I was flying. I went home and called a meeting to see whether the people of Glenflesk would allow access through their holdings to enable this work to be done. They were all delighted. Three or four weeks later, the director of roads in Kerry said he would not apply for the scheme because he had other worries and concerns. We will still have this problem when it rains again. We often hear about floods that happen once in 100 or 1,000 years, but when six such floods happen in the space of three or four weeks, the years come together very quickly.

I will explain the personal effect this can have on a family. The last drive that a local man, Paddy Healy - there is no problem mentioning his name - got out of his house was in a boat. This was provided by the emergency services, which had spent all day getting into him. It is not fair that the last drive he got out of his house was in a boat. I have to pass close to this place two, three or four times every day. It is only six miles from my home to the location where 22 homes are being flooded. Nothing has been done.

At least, very little has been done. The eyes of flood bridges were cleared. There are surely enough of us in this room to acknowledge what needs to be done and get it going. However, the witnesses will tell me they are not responsible to the local authority. We brought a deputation of 50 people to an area meeting of Kerry County Council in February and the local authority told us that it was not its problem. This is despite the fact that the national primary road, 22 houses and the community hall have been flooded. We must work together. I have the highest regard for fishermen, the fishing industry, etc., but people's lives and individuals having access to their homes and to the emergency services are priorities for me. I was never any good at fishing but I have been informed that fish need sunlight in the rivers. The fish are in the dark because the rivers I know are completely shaded and covered in, so the fish are not thriving either. The fishermen I know complain that there are no fish in the river. Could a lack of sunlight be the cause?

I do not want to take up the whole day, I just want to outline how I feel. Public representatives are caught in the middle. Local authorities are interested in their problems, the OPW is interested in its problem and landowners cannot go at it because Inland Fisheries Ireland will come down on top of them. Until there is some joined-up thinking and everyone sits down together, this will be a serious problem. I said in the Dáil the other day that the River Shannon has half the country flooded. It has not been cleaned out since the English did so in the 1800s. These matters must be acknowledged. As I said in the Dáil, the houses did not sink, and the road did not sink, but the rivers are rising. We need to clear them out, open them up and let the water flow.