Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)

Maintenance of the River Shannon is critically important and I hope it will happen. I know the Minister of State has made soundings on it but he has made many hollow soundings to date. We want to see the colour of money with this issue.

In tandem with this we need to consider communities marooned along the River Shannon. Over Christmas a home was flooded in County Roscommon, with a number of farm buildings. We must put investment in place to once and for all raise roads so they are not prone to flooding and are safe and secure. Many of these roads have been raised over the years and, although they are not over the level of the Shannon floods, in some instances they are two metres above the ground around them. When the ground floods there is a serious safety hazard as none of them has crash barriers. If a vehicle went off an icy road it may not be found for months. It is very important to deal with this in tandem with the maintenance of the river.

There is a proposal before the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to re-flood part of the cutaway bogs in the north midlands to develop a national wetlands park. This would have the potential to flood an additional 18,000 acres just north of Lough Ree, which would attenuate to some extent the annual flooding south of Athlone. I ask the Minister for Finance to consider the matter and promote it, ensuring the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government takes a progressive attitude in promoting and developing the scheme.

It may be no harm for the Minister of State to come to Roscommon to see what is happening on the ground. He could see the impact of the flooding and speak to some people whose farmyards have been flooded and whose sheds need to be relocated from the flood basin. Other people have had their homes flooded. The Minister of State has a golden opportunity to address the issue. We are in the dying days of the Government and now is the time to act.

I wish to focus on some agriculture issues.

See this speech in context