Mr. Michael Silke:

It is a difficult question to answer thoroughly in one sentence. Looking at what has happened, the ESB was effectively established as the controller of water on the Shannon in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Legislation was enacted at that time to support it. As I said at the start, 100 ft. of water is held back in Ardnacrusha. There is 100 ft. of a drop-off in the Shannon estuary from Ardnacrusha. It is about ten or 12 miles up from the estuary. The ESB went back up the river, through Lough Derg to Portumna. Between Portumna and me, there is a ten-mile stretch of river. A 10 ft. embankment has been built on the Galway side, right up to the weir in Meelick. Lough Derg effectively goes right up to Meelick weir. That bank was built to protect the farmers on the Galway side. On the Tipperary side, the gradient was already high and it did not have to be done except for one or two farmers. On the Galway side, the land was very low but they are protected now.

The ESB could pump out the water from those farmers. When the ESB did that with regard to the whole backwater, this involved the greatest possible quantity of water for the longest possible period. This was at a time and in an age when we needed electricity. We do not need that electricity today. The ESB is producing only something like less than 2% of our country's needs down at Ardnacrusha so we do not need that and the water is still being held back. Instead of the legislation being weakened, it has been strengthened down the years. If you go back up and move on from where we are, there is a stretch of 27 miles between Meelick Weir and Athlone Weir, from where you go into Lough Ree. The ESB and Waterways Ireland connived in the 1970s to raise the levels in Lough Ree by 0.61 m, which is exactly 2 ft of water. That took 65 million cu. m of water storage out of Lough Ree. That has also contributed immensely to our problem as well as the dirt in the Shannon and everything else. Both the ESB and Waterways Ireland have utilised the Shannon for their own selfish gains.

We are calling for a single authority. To be honest, I do not mind who the authority is as long as it is fair and just because what is there at the minute is not fair and just. We need to put an authority in place where if both the ESB and Waterways Ireland are to remain with power on the Shannon, which I assume they will, they can be mandated at any given time as to when to let water go because they did not let the water go in time this year, which contributed immensely to the serious problems we have.