Mr. Michael Silke:

It is a combination of both. The legislation that is there is outdated. There is no question about that. It was put in place at a time when the Shannon was in a different situation than it is today. If the Senator rolls back the clock to when the British left here, there was no real flooding on the Shannon. Let us call a spade a spade. There was certainly no summer flooding. Now we have a summer flood almost every year. That tells its own story and the legislation is still the same as when it was enacted for the ESB back in 1929 or 1930, whenever it was. One man said there a while ago that it may have been 1934. We need to look at that legislation in a very thorough manner and to change it. It needs to be changed because the ESB is working to higher minimum levels, lower minimum levels, and if you ask an ESB man which level they are working to, whether it is the higher or the lower minimum level, he will not give you a straight answer, because I have been there and done that.

That is where we are at the minute. This organisation has total control. The ESB can do nothing wrong and can justify everything it is doing because the legislation is protecting it. It is the same with Waterways Ireland. How could Waterways Ireland and the ESB justify raising Lough Ree by 0.61 m? We need to ask serious questions of ourselves in this country with regard to what is going on. We, as farmers, have suffered enough. If I could, I will say to Deputy Fitzmaurice, that if I was a young man again and had no property in my name, I would take many of the obstacles out myself. I would not mind if I was sent to jail because this is causing so much pain, suffering and hardship to decent honourable people. There are only a few bodies which are responsible for this but, at the end of the day, we completely depend on a committee like this one to do something for us because we are in dire straits at the minute.