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

I will not go back over some of the points I made before Christmas but I hope they are taken on board in respect of the ongoing review by the Government. However, I compliment the staff of the councils, the emergency services, An Garda Síochána, the Army, the Civil Defence, the Red Cross, the Office of Public Works, the farming community and local communities, all of whom have done tremendous work over many weeks battling the flood waters throughout my constituency and the rest of the country. Many families are now exhausted. While the Defence Forces have come to their aid in manning pumps in many parts of the country, there are still families who have been struggling for four or five weeks to man pumps. That should not be the case at this stage.

There is a rapid response corps within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It was established when difficulties arose in east Asia a number of years ago because of the tsunami. In circumstances such as those of recent weeks, the rapid reaction corps should be activated by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to co-ordinate the supports and services needed throughout the country to deal with the crisis. It has been put to me that the US State Department calls a state of emergency when crises such as this happen. Why is it we have to wait a long while before the Army is engaged to support the civil authorities here? A mechanism needs to be put in place to ensure this resource is unlocked and made available. The main criticism I have received over recent weeks concerns the delay in gaining access to sandbags and supports. The process needs to be reviewed in order that this does not happen in future.

I was looking back over some of my notes on flooding along the Shannon.

10 o’clock

In 2011, the Office of Public Works produced the River Shannon level operation review report, which examined water levels on the river and highlighted particular problems the CFRAM study needed to consider. It recommended hydrology and hydraulic modelling of improvements in the channel capacity in the River Shannon to determine whether siltation had reduced the flow capacity, particularly in the bottleneck between Banagher and Meelick.

As the Minister of State will be aware, the CFRAM study was supposed to have been completed by 22 December 2015 but a further 12 months will be required before it is completed. While solutions for 30 towns in the Shannon catchment are to be placed on public display as part of the study, these will result in a large amount of water being dumped in south County Roscommon, east County Galway, south County Westmeath and west County Offaly in the area known as the Shannon Callows. To my amazement, I learned that the question of how to remove water from the Shannon Callows had not yet been addressed. Last Monday, I met the relevant consultants in Ballinasloe who told me they are only now considering the problems between Banagher and Meelick. This means they have spent the past four years examining how to dump water into the Shannon Callows and only now that the deadline for completion of the study has passed are they examining how to get water from them over the weir wall in Meelick and into Lough Derg. Three years ago, Mr. Michael Silke presented to the Office of Public Works information on six bottlenecks in the River Shannon between Banagher and Portumna. Surely action should have been taken before now on the modelling required.

A number of speakers referred to the potential to flood cutaway bogs. I welcome this development, having raised the issue ten years ago at the then Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. If action had been taken at that stage, it would have resulted in the mitigation of the scale of current flooding. Nevertheless, this is a positive and welcome development.

We must actively engage with Bord na Mona on the issue of using the bogs. The company must also be included in the overall management of flood levels on the River Shannon, not only in respect of the cutaway bogs north of Lough Ree and south of Shannonbridge, which would accommodate waters from the rivers Suck and Brosna, but also the River Suck itself, particularly around Ballyforan where some of the pressure could be relieved. The scale of flooding on the rivers Shannon and Suck could be reduced by opening up the bogs, some of which could be flooded to a depth of 4.5 m. However, Bord na Mona could also be usefully engaged in dealing with the siltation problem between Banagher and Meelick. One of the challenges we face in removing the peat and silt that has accumulated over the past 50 years is to transport it from the river banks through the Shannon Callows. Bord na Mona has rail track and staff who possess the necessary skillsets and expertise and must, therefore, be an integral part of the solution to the problem.

The Minister of State, Deputy Harris, visited Ballinasloe before Christmas and I thanked him at the time for doing so. He visited Derrymullen and observed the success of the flood wall in the area, which was constructed as a result of investment of €1.5 million provided by the Office of Public Works and Galway County Council in 2011. It is frustrating that the owners of 60 of the 100 houses that have been protected by the new flood defence system are still unable to obtain flood insurance. There is something fundamentally wrong when we spend money on a flood defence mechanism that proves to be effective and 60% of householders in the relevant area are still unable to obtain flood insurance.

Prior to the most recent flooding, I raised with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the need to alter the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, to accommodate flood mitigation measures on farms. This step is urgently required. Stock could be kept away from flood waters by raising floor levels in some dry sheds. Additional slurry storage capacity and facilities must also be provided on farms located on the Shannon Callows because farmers in the area will be unable to spread slurry on their lands for some time. As I suggested previously, a grant aid scheme needs to be introduced to benefit individuals whose homes are not covered by the measures provided for under the CFRAM programme. The provision of flood defences and barriers for individual homes can provide an effective solution and funding must be made available for this purpose, as was done successfully under previous schemes. The VAT rebate introduced by the Department of Finance should also be extended to cover flood defence works.

While visiting constituents in recent weeks, I encountered anomalies in the humanitarian fund that has been made available for the owners of homes affected by flooding. Thankfully, many homeowners have successfully battled the elements and kept water out of their homes because they had access to sandbags and pumps. However, as a result of their efforts, they have accumulated significant costs, including for electricity and in hiring generators and pumps. Provision must be made to have such costs covered by the humanitarian fund.

As I indicated previously to the Minister of State, an anomaly also arises with regard to some businesses which are not rated for reason or another. For example, a classroom is exempt under the rates scheme, which means the business support scheme cannot be used to fund repairs. These anomalies must be removed.

A significant number of homes and communities in County Roscommon and east County Galway are marooned. Some homes are still behind 3 ft. of water. If someone were to have a heart attack or stroke and required access to emergency services, it would be virtually impossible to remove him or her from some of these areas because the Coast Guard helicopter does not have sufficient landing space. The Defence Forces must introduce protocols for approximately 80 homes in my constituency to reassure people that they will be able to access medical treatment in the event of an emergency.

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