Mr. Michael Silke:

We have the look at the issue of the flooding of the Shannon, where it all started. I will start in Victorian times, when the weirs were built, and I am not going to start naming them because I do not have time. Then we had Ardnacrusha, and that has an awful effect on us upriver. There is 100 ft of water held back in Ardnacrusha, and between Portumna and Meelick, there is a 10 ft embankment that was built by the ESB back in the 1920s and 1930s. That is holding the water in from the Callows in that specific area. We are the fall guys between Athlone and Meelick. There was nothing done for us. When the water comes from the lakes, and it comes at a very fast rate from both Lough Ree and Lough Allen, we have a serious problem in those areas with the levels that are being maintained in Lough Ree, Lough Allen and Lough Derg.

This year, for instance, on 10 July the water was rising quite rapidly in the lakes. In Lough Allen, it had risen by over 2 ft on 12 July. Coming down from Athlone towards Shannonbridge, the Shannon had risen 2 ft again. Half of the gates were closed in Meelick. That is the harsh reality, and we were flooded a few days after. We could see this coming a week to ten days before, and we were asking and craving that the ESB, Waterways Ireland and the OPW would let the water go. They simply did not and would not let it go. That is the reason we have the situation that we have at the minute.

Going back to the flooding and the flood events that we have had, we had a major problem in 2009. We all saw that one on television, I am sure. It was a major flood and way in excess of the one in 1954, which was supposed to be the mother of all floods. It was 2 ft higher. We were told it would never happen again but it happened again in 2015-16. Again, it was 8 in. higher than 2008, so that was 2 ft 8 in. higher than 1954, and the consequences for us in the middle Shannon has have been disastrous. We were told the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, studies were being put in place. We were told they would take care of all of our needs but they did not take care of any of our needs. They looked after the towns and the villages. They built flood defences in those areas but for us, they did absolutely nothing. We are living with the consequences today.

There are environmentalists who like to talk about the Shannon Callows and it is supposed to be a fantastic place for an ecosystem and so forth. However, we are killing off the ecosystem. We have killed the corncrake. In 2002, we had a major summer flood that killed the corncrake. We have what is left wader bird population now, and the wader birds are the curlew, redshank, lapwing and snipe. They are going to be gone inside of five to ten years if we do not do something about the flooding. That is how serious it is, not to mind the fishing, boating and you name it.

I will finish on this. The people in our area are asking very clearly and distinctly why they are being punished in the manner in which they are. The towns and villages have all been looked after but the people in rural Ireland have been thrown to the wolves. People are asking the question: "Why is this being done to us?" I thank the Chair.