Mr. Michael Silke:

Going back to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's comments, he spoke about land being devalued because of flooding. There is no question that is the case. If you multiply the flooding, most of the flooding occurs on designated land. All of the land along the Shannon callows is designated as a special protection area, SPA. It is possibly the highest form of designation you can get. It is designated under the habitats directive. In my opinion, it was the biggest land grab by the State and the European Commission ever seen in our country.

I am talking from a personal perspective although my situation is no different from Mr. Ryan's or anyone else's. We inherited a lot of our land but we also bought a lot of it. However, that land is worth a pittance relative to what I paid for it back in the 1980s. That is because of the habitats directive, the designation and flooding. It would be the final insult if, because of Government policy or Government failure, we were now to be driven off that land because of flooding. That is what is happening. We are going to be driven off it. No young lad is going to farm that land. The environmentalists can have this merry-go-round attitude that farmers are clowns who will stay anyway but the young lads will not stay there. The wildlife has gone. It did not go for no reason but because it could not live with the flooding. The people will go. What the environmentalists do not realise is that the boating people will also go. I have seen it on the Shannon this year. It should be remembered that it was only a summer flood and not a major winter flood. However, it was the most serious summer flood we have ever had. The boating people were not on the river. They could not control the boats because of the flow of water on the river and the flood situation. It was the same with the fishing people. They were not there either. That is where we are headed. We are heading into a wasteland.

I will briefly address Deputy Cowen's question on the CFRAM study. I was involved with that from its inception. I was promised faithfully by the people carrying out the project and by the OPW, which was responsible for it, that it was all-embracing and that every issue relative to flooding along the Shannon would be dealt with. By and large, the towns were dealt with but rural Ireland was not dealt with. Rural Ireland was thrown to the wolves.