Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I hope the people working on CFRAM studies and in the OPW pay some heed to these statements. Some salient information is being gathered throughout the country and put on the record of the House, and I hope it is actionable. I welcome the fact that we are moving away from a period of austerity into a period of prosperity. Over the past five years and even the past 20 years, very little has been done to alleviate the problems caused by floods. Although a number of projects have taken place, I am glad to note we are to spend from €430 million to €500 million to protect places.

I come from the town of Tralee which used to flood profoundly in the early 1980s and before that. Thanks to a culvert that was put in place the last time the Labour Party was in government, in the 1980s, the town does not flood anymore. To the delight of people, it is not flooding. They look at places like Shannon and thank God for the culvert and extensive capital programme that was carried out. We need to do more, however. A ring road was built in Tralee town. A study was carried out before its construction and it was stated that the net effect would be that no lands would be flooded. However, I can tell the House that farmland has flooded up around Kennedy Equine Centre. There has also been flooding on the Castlemaine road. Down where Danny Dunne lives, as mentioned, Caherwisheen, Clahane and Ballyard, which never flooded before, have all flooded. This may sound trivial in the national context but this is the level of detail we need CFRAM studies to obtain to gain an understanding. We should bear in mind the flooding in places such as Kilmoyley, where a resident has been pumping out water since 2009 when I became a councillor. We should bear in mind that there are rivers close by and that the natural flow of water could solve the problem. Pipes need to be put in place and neighbours need to co-operate. We need to consider an overall solution but we need compensation packages to address what has happened in recent times.

I am really resentful of the fact that I have been given only three minutes in which to speak about this considering it is such a major issue. In areas such as Killarney, I met representatives of businesses under threat. One business got absolutely tattooed, unfortunately. Places such as Fossa, Kilmoyley and Kenmare, which I visited on Saturday, have businesses that were never flooded before. This is also the case in areas around Listowel.

To solve this, money is needed, but tacit knowledge, or knowledge coming from the ground up, is also required. There are houses now built on flood plains where I used to play as a kid. Six families were removed from an area called Bruach na hAbhainn. One would not need too many words of Irish to work out that this means "bank of the river". If any place is prone to flooding, that is it.

Consider the net effect of a new road. I am not sure what it means for other areas. It was incredible to see land under four feet of water and houses surrounded by two or three feet of water. The famous Munster Bar, which for many is synonymous with the Rose of Tralee International Festival and which was never flooded in the past, was flooded. Its owner, Mr. John O'Sullivan, and others there were flooded for the first time ever. I welcome the fact we are making funding available to alleviate the problems of businesses through the Red Cross and the community welfare officer through the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, who has had her own trouble with floods in recent weeks. She is tougher than that so she will get out of it and sail into better waters.

We need to know the exact details of the problems. Problems in places such as Ballylongford and the Cashen area can be fixed but we need the relevant information and action. We have five years to achieve this. I would like to be part of a Government that does not say we have a failed state, as some were alleging tonight, or that we do nothing about the problem but which instead solves problems. That is the job we are supposed to be doing here.

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