Mr. Michael Silke:

To reply to Deputy Coonan, with regard to identifying the critical areas, the most critical area along the River Shannon between Meelick and Athlone is an area called Shannon Grove. That is an extremely critical area. It is approximately a mile from the bridge in Banagher down towards Meelick. We have identified that area. The OPW has the printout on these areas and I have given it all the details on this. I can give the details of what we have identified to the committee if it would like that information. Minor remedial works need to be done but that is one of the most critical areas. There is also an area north of Banagher, a place called Derryholmes, which desperately needs to be looked at. If we could tackle small areas like these, particularly the stretch between Banagher and Meelick and then move on towards Shannonbridge, there is no doubt it would have a massive beneficial effect. I do not want to give a big rigmarole about the areas because there is no point in setting out ten sites that need works carried out and for works not to be carried out on any of them. If we were to concentrate on two sites and carry out the necessary works, we could see if they would have a beneficial effect. I have no doubt about saying that it would have a beneficial effect because I know that area intimately as I live in that general area.

Regarding the issue of water going to Dublin, I have said from the word go, long before flooding was an issue and in terms of doing something about this issue, that if we had an abundance of water and the people on the east coast wanted it that they should not be refused it. That was my gut feeling, irrespective of a perception about flooding. There are three aspects about the issue of water going to Dublin, the first is that it should go to Dublin, the second is that it is being taken from the wrong place, and third is that it will make no significant difference to flooding of any description.

I gave the water levels for Lough Ree on the morning of 7 June last, namely, 36.88 m and 37.7 m. There was more than enough water held back in Lough Ree over and before the minimum navigation level not only to serve the Dublin area but the whole of the east coast for 15 months. That is the amount of water that was held back in Lough Ree. For anybody to say that taking water from there will decimate the Shannon and do this, that and the other, is telling blatant untruths. It is as simple and straightforward as that. It will have no appreciable effect. That is the reason I was a little fed up with the people from Jacobs Engineering when they had not investigated the possibility of moving water into the cutaway bogs north of Lough Ree. If water is needed in Dublin, there is a ready-made source as it were and it need not interfere with the River Shannon. If there is a dry summer, the water is available if it is needed for Dublin and, if it is not, it can be released whenever it is considered right to do so through the Shannon. It is safe to do that.

The water is going to Dublin now and the Shannon is going to be raped again. It was raped by Bord na Móna and down through the years by the local authorities. I have been told by old people in the area that one of the reasons the levels were raised in Athlone was the need for the sewage from the town to be decimated. The level of water that came over the weir wall was strong enough to shove it down and push it out over callows, which it did. The callows are not as fertile now as they were and that is the reason. I am pulling no punches here, this is the reality. With the water that is going to Dublin now, the Shannon is going to be raped again and that is wrong. We should have a programme for the water going to Dublin. We have a resource that is destroying our livelihoods and the east coast needs that resource, but it should involve a cost. The money derived from it should be invested in restoring the Shannon to where it was when the British left and in that way we could have better fishing, better boating activity and people could live in harmony. As a farmer, I am not against the people engaged in boating activity on Lough Ree who want the levels high all the time, as do anglers. Let us call a spade a spade. We could marry this together and live in harmony if this was properly approached. The water is being given too cheaply at present. It should not be an issue in terms of it going from Terryglass and I believe it is going from there.