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

I will be brief. Mr. Kearney put it better than any of us could when he said people just want to live in their homes. This is really the top and the bottom of the issue. It is a small ask in this day and age, but, unfortunately, this is the request. This is all that is being looked for. All of us local representatives have been on the ground at Lough Funshinagh. It is important to again record that the area has been completely destroyed. The trees look like they have been burnt alive. The whole area has been destroyed. This is what is there and this is what is left. We are now coming into another winter and this issue has gone on for far too long.

It has been said many times today that the only solution is to reduce the water levels. This is the only solution and this is where we must get to from now to then. We must get to that point as fast as possible. The NPWS has been adamant, certainly in replies we have received in respect of questions we have put to it through the Oireachtas and the European Commission, that it has engaged. It is important for it to be put on the record what engagement the NPWS has had with the community and with the people living in the area specifically.

Equally, when the Minister of State came before county council members, and it was several months ago that he spoke in the chamber of Roscommon County Council, he was adamant at that point that this would have to be a cross-departmental response, that there would have to be engagement and that there was a role for almost every Department. What Deputy Naughten just said about the level of engagement, therefore, is worrying. It does not seem to be where it needs to be. We must see movement on this aspect.

It has been said that the people living in the area are not interested in compensation. I can understand that because it is their home and where they live. People have lived there for generations. They should not have to go. This is the point. Nobody should have to go. Regarding the supports given, however, in the context of this being the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, have supports been provided to farmers by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine? Have any financial supports been provided? Turning to the Department of Social Protection, has it provided any supports? I refer to aspects such as damage caused to houses up to now or whatever such funding might be needed for. Have financial supports been provided by either Department?

I am not a member of this committee, but I am here today because typically, in many cases, all politicians do not agree. In our constituency, however, there is support and we are standing with the witnesses. I wish this issue could be solved, that we could do more and that this could have been solved yesterday. I reiterate that the witnesses have our full support. I hope we can arrive at a solution and that we do not see a recurrence of what we have seen happening for years. I hope this problem is solved once and for all. It will only be solved by reducing the water levels, continuing the work that has been started and getting this done. We must put people before anything else. They are number one and we must put people first.