Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter because I am interested in this motion. I put on record my thanks to those in my local authority, including the workers and employees in County Laois for the excellent job they did. There are several major national primary routes throughout the county, including the Dublin to Cork and Dublin to Limerick routes, along with many national secondary routes. These were kept open at all stages. The idea of people coming here and stating the country was closed down is insupportable. That did not happen. All national primary routes were open at all stages. Most secondary routes were open at all stages. Most local roads were passable if people drove very slowly and it is important that people say as much. I thank the council in Laois for putting deposits of grit in key locations where local people could come and take a trailer load of grit and spread it on the roads near there houses, something that has not been done before.

I refer to the motion before the House. It is the cheapest political motion tabled for a long time and it deserves a political response. The motion calls on the Government to establish a single, semi-State water utility company to take over the responsibility of water investment and management on a national basis. Some weeks ago after the flooding, other people in Fine Gael stated there should be a national rivers authority to deal with drainage and flooding and that such matters should be done on a national basis. It seems every second week other members of the Fine Gael party come here and state that we should abolish quangos or that they should not be established. Let us go through the record. Every second week in the House a Fine Gael motion seeks a new authority, but the following week it wishes to dismantle the authorities in place.

I refer to the real point because it is a very political motion. The leader of Fine Gael has lost all confidence in his party members in Seanad Éireann and he stated he would single-handedly abolish the Seanad were he in a position to do so. He forgot to mention during that interview on television that it is a matter for the people to decide. Now, there is a situation whereby almost all local authorities are managed, run or chaired by Fine Gael cathaoirligh. However, the national party of Fine Gael comes to the House demanding to take power from the local authorities

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