Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak. We could nearly speak about the weather here every week in the last number of weeks because things have been so bad. I pay tribute to the local authority staff and Eircom workers and I offer my condolences to the family of the deceased Eircom subcontractor who lost his life at the weekend. As we have all said, it is was a miracle that more people were not either seriously injured or worse last Wednesday with what happened. I draw the Minister's attention in particular to the need for protocols for the Department of Education and Skills especially.

I understand that 12 hours before what was essentially a hurricane hit the south west, somebody would have known. The Department of Education and Skills should have taken it upon themselves to ensure that schools were closed last Wednesday, especially in the worst affected areas, almost on a line from Galway to Waterford and every place south west of it. At the height of the storm parents panicked, and in some cases schools contacted parents. In the eye of the storm children were walking across schoolyards with slates, tiles and so on being blown off the roofs and in some cases gates were blown towards people. A dangerous situation was made much worse. It is time protocols were in place where, in the event of red weather warnings, as there was last week, when a hurricane hit Ireland, we should take the precautionary principle of not having children in unnecessary danger. Adults can look after themselves.

On the issue of the damage caused to Limerick, on the last occasion I mentioned Foynes and Ballysteen. A matter I have a huge issue with - I raised it on the Topical Issue debate last week - is that we will never get to a situation in which the Office of Public Works, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government or any local authority is adequately able to deal with the drainage issue. Now is a good time for local authorities, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Office of Public Works to come together under the new rural development programme and incentivise landowners with proper technical advice to carry out drainage. I said on Thursday last that if there were a proposal now to drain the Moy and Boyne rivers - both of which projects were very successful under the arterial drainage programme - habitats, birds, fish, larvae and everything else would be put ahead of the individual towns and villages along those routes to prevent the drainage works from being carried out. We must ask ourselves which habitat we value most - the human one or the animal one. I witnessed this in Athea in County Limerick when it flooded in 2008. Gravel had almost to be put back into the river because the National Parks and Wildlife Service did not like the fact that Limerick County Council was taking it upon itself to relieve an eye of a bridge. We cannot continue to have that type of situation. Neither am I suggesting that somebody should be allowed put a digger in a river and take out gravel willy nilly. We need to change the present model. The Office of Public Works is not taking on any new channels because it does not have the resources, but it will never have the resources, no matter how good the economy. Therefore, we need to examine the issue seriously. Our weather has changed; of that there is no doubt. One issue that is indisputable is that our channels and water courses are in a diabolical condition all over the country. Local authorities do not have the wherewithal to deal with them and landowners are afraid to deal with them. Somebody needs to put an overall package in place.

Everybody refers to the fact that the Shannon river from Cavan to Limerick has a multiplicity of agencies and everybody has a say. There is a River Shannon in every parish and townland in these counties and a multiplicity of agencies are conflicting with each other, with the result that nobody will take responsibility for what is a simple issue at the end of the day - that is, to allow water out. If water cannot be allowed out, inevitably it will back up and end up in somebody's house. The reason we have the present conditions is that we have a fluvial problem: rainfall is getting heavier and we are getting more of it. If we cannot channel that water out to sea, given all the blockages, is it any wonder the land is flooded? The multiplicity of agencies from Cavan to the Shannon estuary at Ballylongford and Ballybunion is replicated all over the country.

Through the rural development programme recently announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the existing agri-environment schemes, there is an opportunity to incentivise landowners, with supervision, technical support from Inland Fisheries Ireland, and the support of local authorities, in an organised way. This has been done previously through the rural environment protection scheme and the agri-environment options scheme and would allow a much more concerted effort on a national basis to address a fundamental issue, namely, the condition of our drainage.

I compliment the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy Brian Hayes, on the work he has done, and his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. There is much more we can learn from this and I would welcome any suggestion that is brought forward in that manner.

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