Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know the ECA has contingency work on reports and there is a huge bloc of countries it has to engage with. However, I would love to see that put in writing or codified at some point. When the Dutch do it, it is good. They deepen the water channel and more boats and vessels can get down but they also increase the speed of water then going down the Rhine. Germany does not have the same approach to it but the Dutch model, in my opinion and if I understood the ambassador correctly, looks fantastic. You can have habitats, industry and the needs of a flowing watercourse all co-existing.

Our approach in Ireland seems to be that we cannot because it is protected. The whole Shannon is protected so you cannot dredge it. The last time the Shannon was dredged was under British rule. There were Black and Tan trucks going down the roads of Ireland. We have not done anything of significance since. We have only cleared up the watercourse, we have never dredged it, and it should be no wonder that the Shannon floods every single year. There was a time when they would deepen the watercourse and everything they pulled out from the silt bed would be banked up on either side, so you would gain a metre in depth and a metre in bank height. That is the sensible approach. I would love to see a more co-ordinated approach. I refer to the Rhine and if it bursts its banks.

This concerns all of Europe. It probably does not matter too much on the domestic front. Surely a pan-European approach to this issue would help.