Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to make a short contribution on this important motion. In the aftermath of what were considered to be the most difficult climatic conditions this country has experienced for the past 40 years it is important to keep the Government's attention on the reality of what is happening on the ground. People continue to suffer, despite the fact that it is no longer on the television or on the front pages of the newspapers.

I wish to focus on two issues. I must be fair and point out that the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, came to County Galway as a result of the flooding and subsequently attended a mass meeting of people in the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran's, constituency and in the constituencies adjoining the Shannon. The only thing he could say on the day was that he would take the lead role in organising the other agencies that had a contribution to make towards the regulation of the water in the Shannon, namely, the ESB, Inland Waterways, Shannon Navigation, inland fisheries and other agencies. These floods will recur for as long as the Minister of State or some other Minister does not take responsibility for a single authority for the Shannon. On the other side of my constituency, in south Galway from Gort to Craughwell and on towards Kinvara, a huge area is still flooded as we speak tonight, not to the same depths as it was before Christmas, but the reality is that €1.6 million was spent eight years ago on a study to alleviate flooding in that area. Not one shovel of clay has been taken from the ground to relieve the flooding there.

I contend, based on what I heard from various Ministers on the ground, that some Ministers in the past contributed to the fact that work was prevented from being done. The National Parks and Wildlife Service - Dúchas formerly had responsibility for this area - is lurking on the edge of the floods to move in and tell people they cannot do something because of the fauna and flora. I invited and challenged them to come to south Galway and see what was left behind and the damage which was done to wildlife, fish, birds and all the rest, and it did not have a word to say. No farming community would ever have had such a dramatic influence and killed off so many of the precious areas it had cleared.

People's livelihoods are far more important than other items. It is a disgrace that the Tánaiste, the Minister and the Government have not called in the insurance companies and told them they will have to provide quotes for re-insuring the houses in Ballinasloe and south Galway which they will not cover under any previous insurance policy. I can furnish the Minister with the names of the companies. She will have to take action, despite the fact that she refused to do and said she cannot do so, even through legislation, to provide additional cover for those who are now being denied it by the companies concerned.

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