Mr. Liam Broderick:

I will expand on a point Mr. Silke made. We live on the banks of the Shannon and have been talking a lot about farmers but there are lots of other residents living along the Shannon. I refer to people who are not farmers but also businesses. There are a few people living in Shannonbridge. When the flood rose, the boating companies told people hiring boats that they were not to park in Shannonbridge. As far as we know, they were actually told not to go past Athlone. They were to go south down to Lough Derg because the water that was coming down made it difficult for boats to be parked. People running businesses, including restaurants and pubs, lost out as a result. Mr. Silke also mentioned fishermen. The flooding does not just impact on farmers. It impacts on everybody. It impacts on the people who live out in the countryside, the promotion of tourism and so on. A lot of lands are designated as special protection areas and the habitats directive is supposed to defend and look after the habitats of all those birds and animals that live out there but all we are doing is flooding them. It does not make any sense. It is time for a bit of sense to be seen. That is why I said earlier that the committee must take on board the big picture here. There is a big picture for the country and it needs to be dealt with in lots of different ways.

Deputy Canney mentioned agencies and trying to get little things done. A little agency was put together, the Shannon flood risk State agency co-ordination working group. It meets twice a year and there is not one victim of Shannon flooding on it. Furthermore, we had an emergency in our area and that group did not meet once during that period of time.