Mr. Michael Silke:

As matters stand, we meet the OPW on a regular basis. The OPW tells us clearly that it cannot effectively command ESB, Waterways Ireland, the National Parks and Wildlife Service or any such body to carry out any process that needs to be carried out. For instance, last year when there was a minuscule amount of maintenance work done in an area below the gates in Mellick, the National Parks and Wildlife Service vetoed the work. I, myself, would have had contact with the National Parks and Wildlife Service over the past ten or 15 years since I started my involvement in IFA and it was the senior staff in the National Parks and Wildlife Service, not the OPW, who got that through for us. The OPW had no power to do it and its officials themselves told me so. That, to me, flies in the face of everything that is right. When there is a person who knows what needs to be done or what would be of some help, and people are suffering seriously because it is not done, it is wrong that an agency such as the National Parks and Wildlife Service can veto it because it raises questions related to the Habitats Directive.

The habitats directive is a rough tool. Where I live, for instance, tiny islands have accumulated on the River Shannon which are on no map. Most of them have accumulated in my time and I am not yet 100 years of age. What happens is they accumulate from silt from Bord na Móna and natural run-off and then a bird drops a seed and a little twig grows, as in a sally bush, an ash bush or whatever, and 20 years down the line there would be a tree and then it is alluvial woodland. This is what has happened. It comes under Annex I of the habitats directive when one wants do something to take it out of there. It is a major problem. We need to look at that issue. It is critical for the likes of the OPW, which has its own environmentalists, to take on the likes of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and tell them that the public good is at risk, that people's liveihoods and human health are at stake and this must be stopped.

We are not looking for the River Shannon to be drained. We never did. After a summer like last year, we would accept flooding if every procedure were followed, the impediments were cleaned out of the river and the levels in the lakes were appropriate, but we cannot accept it on the back of what is there at the minute. That is why it is so critical to us that there would be a lead agency such as the OPW that would have the power to command other agencies to do what needs to be done. That is not the way it is at present.

In the time of then Minister of State, Dr. Martin Mansergh, when he appointed the OPW as the lead agency, Mr. Gerry Gunning and I met him to discuss the matter. We put a great deal of pressure on him that there was a need to put legislation in place to strengthen OPW's hand. Dr. Mansergh told us - he was clear on it and Mr. Gunning remembers this the same as I do - that if the statutory instrument was put in place and found to be wanting, then he would go back and strengthen it. It is in place two years. That was after the flooding of November-December 2009 and it has not been strengthened. The OPW staff are walking around like lame sheep. They have no power.

I watched the misery of people last summer. There are farmers today who are bankrupt. It is as simple as that. I do not know how they will pay their bills to the merchants and others. We are facing into an awful crisis. I do not think anybody realises it, but we are. I am living and farming in the middle of it. I can tell the committee there is real despair and we need to tackle it. The only hope we have today is to come in to the likes of this committee. If the committee cannot do something for us, we all must throw our hats at it and say the game is over. There is no future for us, and I can say that clearly.

I, myself, am involved in the suckler cow sector. We got a large cut in the budget. I lost €3,500 or more in the budget as a consequence of the farm cuts, not to mention any other cuts. That is significant in a year like this to the likes of us down along the river. Most of the farmers down along the river are involved in the suckler cow sector and sheep because their land is not good enough for dairying. I do not see a future unless the committee can do something for us.