Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have two other questions. One relates to drainage and CFRAM and the ongoing campaign all over the country to address it. I realise the difficulty in co-ordination and there are always snags. We had them in my constituency, where somebody comes up with an objection and suddenly the progress of the scheme has to stop. I ask for confirmation that we are progressing as was intended in County Kildare and the surrounding areas. River desilting has gone by the wayside for several years. It used to be done under the arterial drainage programme. It has been left by the wayside on the basis that we do not need to do it any more. That is not true. I have some experience in that area and am certain that if rivers are not desilted from time to time, or at least have obstructions removed from them, capacity is dramatically reduced. That capacity will only be seen and felt when a storm comes. That is how it works.

In near-urban areas attenuation tanks have become a major feature. There was severe flooding in my constituency a few years ago and I discovered that the attenuation tanks were full and there was no release. The water was up to the tops of the windows and a lot of damage was done to property and a lot of distress was caused. By various means, we responded by getting a digger - it was an emergency - and dug a channel from one area to another to allow the water to flow away, which it did. That needs to be noted. We are all on for rewetting now. It should be done in areas that are marginal so that we do not decommission food producing land or land for agricultural purposes.

I have also noticed that areas near rivers, especially small rivers, are being allowed to fall into ruin, for want of a better description, and weeds, grass and debris accumulate, which again reduces capacity. Even when the best drainage procedures are followed and attenuation tanks come to capacity, the overflow goes into the river or stream, which is now obstructed to the extent that it is not able to do its job. I ask for that to be examined as soon as possible to reassure everybody that flooding where they are living will have this or that result but they will not be flooded out.

I am interested in objections. There is a lot of emphasis nowadays on the rights of the objector. In the case of planning, a person has the right to object. That is correct and the way it should be because a development may impact heavily on the person making the objection in a very specific way. On the other hand, it may not. If it is totally unrelated, however, and a person living 40 miles away decides, for no one's benefit, that there should be an objection because he or she has the right to object, the answer is simple. We all have the right, but not the obligation. We need to ask if we are making life more difficult for some other person, persons or group of people by holding something up. To what extent is the Department conscious of the validity of the objection - the strength of the objection is probably a better description - before seeking an early decision from An Bord Pleanála or elsewhere? We cannot allow ourselves to wait for six, 12 or 14 months, during which everything is held up and at the same time there is an urgency. I am conscious of various places in the north of the country, the Dublin region and the midlands where there have been objections to flood relief works that are absolutely necessary.

To what benefit, I do not know. I cannot understand why that should be other than to achieve for the individuals who object in those cases a feeling that they have done something good for themselves, the country, society or whatever. That has to be the end game. It has to be of benefit to somebody at the end.