Mr. Michael Silke:

Deputy Stanley asked questions on maintenance, the NPWS and the OPW so I shall marry them together. When we talk about river maintenance we are not talking about dredging. Many people have suggested that we drain the River Shannon, which is a stupid comment because we will never see it drained. Deputy Stanley asked questions on maintenance, the NPWS and the OPW so I shall marry them together. When we talk about river maintenance we are not talking about dredging. Many people have suggested that we drain the River Shannon, which is a stupid comment because we will never see it drained. There is no money to carry out minor schemes, never mind drain it.

It goes back to the role of Bord na Móna. As the representatives of Bord na Móna are absent is hard to say what I must say, but as I have expressed my opinions on this to them many times they are aware of my views. I believe they have a responsibility in this regard. Bord na Móna has operations along the Shannon and there are thousands if not millions of tons of peat in critical areas of the River Shannon. It washes down the river and got caught at corners and different places. We have identified the critical areas in which silt has accumulated and bushes and trees are growing in it today. We want these bushes and trees taken from the river. We are very clear on this point and we have identified the sites of the silt to the OPW. It is correct that we have a problem with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and it goes back to the point made by Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan that the National Parks and Wildlife Service is the body that is supposed to be protecting the corncrake, yet it has contributed to destroying them. There is a rethink within the National Parks and Wildlife Service at present but does it go far enough? It is all very well to be rethinking but one must be prepared to take the boot off. I have been told by senior staff in the National Parks and Wildlife Service that when those sites were designated as alluvial woodland or annexe 1 under the directive, the staff who made those decisions were not sufficiently senior to make those decisions. When Mr. Gerry Gunning and I went to Brussels three years ago the Director General for the Environment clearly told us that what had happened in Ireland should not have happened, that sites that should not have been designated were designated because there was an internal problem in Ireland. That is the reason it is critical that the Oireachtas must give us help at this time. We cannot do a great deal with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. I can get a break but I cannot draft legislation. The OPW is the lead agency and it must have the legislation to support its work, and if it does not have that power, it is at nothing.

Environmentalists in particular raise the issue of climate change. I listened to Pat Kenny lead a discussion on rising sea levels, as though it was causing the summer flooding in the Shannon callows. He does not know there is 120 ft. of a drop between Ardnacrusha and the other side and one must come back up the river. The sea is hardly going to rise 120 ft. and come up to Clonown, Shannonbridge or Clonmacnoise. We must talk sense.

When the water levels were raised in Lough Ree in the 1970s, the thinking was that we had come through a number of very dry summers and that precipitated the raising of the levels in the 1970s. Now the scenario is different, Deputy Stanley said specifically that we have experienced climate change and that is all the more reason we need to redress the issue and right the mistakes we made then.

Let us consider what happened on 7 June 2012. I have the ESB water management documentation on regulations and guidelines for the control of the River Shannon. The ESB states clearly the minimum navigational level in Lough Ree is 36.88 m and that means one can safely navigate Lough Ree at 36.88 OD. That tells a person that one can navigate safely through Lough Ree at 36.88 m. On the morning of 7 June, when the weather forecast was for very heavy rain, the level in Lough Ree coming over the weir wall in Athlone was 37.70 m. That is 2 ft. 8 in. above 36.88 m. There was no storage there and it was maintained during a six week period, one of the driest periods we ever had. I can remember well last May, as we were reclaiming land and the dust would cut the eyes out of your head. Water could have been shifted through the River Shannon. Nobody need tell me it could not have been done, as I am on the Shannon every single day of my life. A number of committee members have been down at my farm and Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy came over to the island which is part of my farm. I know the levels instinctively as soon as I can get into my boat. Those levels were at summer level for a six week period prior to the 7 June and we could have moved the 2 ft. 8 in. of water from Lough Ree through the system safely without adverse effects but we did not do it. The question I pose is why are we not prepared to do this, particularly in the context of climate change because as Deputy Stanley stated when we get rain, it is heavier and the perception is that the rainfall is heavier now than in the past.

Surely we must make greater allowance for rain in the future, rather than keeping our head in the sand. It makes common sense to bring the levels back to what they were. I would even go as far, Chairman as to say if there are problems in Lough Ree with the jetties that were built in the intervening years, let a deal be done between the National Parks and Wildlife Service to make provision for proper access to those jetties. It should not destroy our livelihoods because it wants to get boats into a particular sport up along Lough Ree. I have been told by the boating people in Lough Ree that it is not issue except in a tiny number of cases, as 90% of the boats have no issue, but 10% of boats that have been brought in recently need bigger draught.

There are rocks and silt in critical area and that is the issue that should be addressed. Please do not destroy the livelihoods of people located between Lough Ree and Lough Derg. This area spans the constituencies of Deputies Stanley, Corcoran Kennedy, Cowen and 'Ming' Flanagan. Some five or six counties are being destroyed. Even if one goes up to County Longford, and my colleague, Mr. Andrew McHugh can speak for the farmers of County Longford, but some of the farms on the banks of Lough Ree have been destroyed because of raising the levels. When we have incessant rainfall, the rain has nowhere to go except out on to the farmland. It is hitting everybody, not just in my area of the country, in which it is a serious problem.