Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My heart goes out to those who have had their homes flooded. I have been in similar houses in my down through the years. It is devastating for any family to have their house flooded, particularly when there is the potential risk of it happening a second and third time. During the past few days numerous families in my constituency have not been able to sleep at night because of the risk of their home being flooded again for a further time. It is an issue of huge concern around the country and in my constitutency and one on which we need to definitively act.

I acknowledge the role played by the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, in this regard. In fairness to him, he is the first Minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works who came to the Shannon catchment area in advance of any flooding. He was proactive and met the communities involved and started putting steps in place straightaway. That needs to be acknowledged. One significant step he took was to introduce a pilot project to reduce the water level at the weir wall in Athlone and the water level in Lough Ree. A concern I have about the work is that a trial was done on it in 2013 but it is like the third secret of Fatima, in that, for some bizarre reason the OPW and the ESB are not willing to disclose the results and the impact it has, particularly on summer flooding within the Shannon Callows. The results of that need to be put into the public domain in order that we know exactly what is going on.

The Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, spoke about hotspots and said that it would take 35 years to address those hotspots. Included in those are ones in my new constitutency in Ahascragh and Ballinasloe and in my current constitutency in Ballinamore, Carrick on Shannon, Drumshambo, Leitrim, Mohill Athleague, Boyle, Castlerea, Drummod and Roscommon. I note from the list of hotspots that there is no mention of the community in Four Roads in County Roscommon or of the community in Clonown who can, on occasion, be marooned in their homes because of flooding. I hope the Minister of State will amend that list to include those particular communities.

Many speakers have spoken about the issue of insurance. In fairness to the OPW, it has spent a good deal of money in addressing flooding problems. One particular community that has benefited is the community in Athleague where some works have been carried out to alleviate the flooding problem, but families and individuals there cannot get flood insurance from the insurance industry to cover their homes and premises even those works have been carried out and more works are planned. It is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately by the insurance industry.

It is imperative that we ensure that the moneys that are being made available are spent in a practical way. A fund was put in place to provide for a home relocation scheme in my constituency on foot of the 2009 but families are still waiting in 2014 for money to be released under that scheme. It is not right that families have had to wait five years and cope with layers upon layers of bureaucracy to deal with a scheme, the purpose of which was to take them out of a flood plain once and for all to ensure that the issue not arise again. The OPW has said that it will not be physically possible for it to protect those homes.

It is also important that immediate action is taken to address the siltation of the River Shannon. Since the British left this country not one shovel of silt has been taken out of the river. We have addressed the issue in other tributaries but not in the River Shannon. I urge the National Parks and Wildlife Service to take a proactive approach to address this. I ask that it thinks of human beings and not only the flora and fauna and to take a practical approach to address this.

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