Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

CLÁR is an excellent scheme which works well and I watch to ensure its budget is not cut this year. During many previous winters we had serious problems with flooding in many parts of rural Ireland. We had this problem even in the bad old days when people with horses and carts went out on wet days, marked the roads and knew where flooding problems occurred. We now have top-class educated people who know nothing about roads. They tar a road to the corner and leave no room for drainage.

Last year, most of the flooding occurred in south Mayo and part of the Minister's Galway constituency because proper drainage work was not done by the OPW, county councils or the Department. Nobody took responsibility for this or for the flooding when it occurred. Will the Minister, who has responsibility for rural affairs, change policy and bring together local authorities, the OPW and the Department to draw up a scheme to allow the funding provided for CLÁR to be used for road drainage? It would save the taxpayer a great deal of money.

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