Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have been through a terrible time with flooding in Athlone and Clondra. Working on the ground since the floods began in early December, I have seen at first hand the level of devastation and distress that has been suffered by people and businesses. With this in mind, I invited several Ministers, including the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, and, of course, the Taoiseach to come and see for themselves the extent of the flooding and its consequences and I am grateful to all of them for doing so. Having a Minister come to the constituency made it a lot easier for me to articulate the concerns of local people and their needs and what was necessary to help alleviate the hardship. Everyone involved in the flood relief efforts in Athlone has done an amazing job and I am very proud of the wonderful community spirit shown in the town during a time of great need. This does not mean, however, we cannot look at the procedures and the criteria in place to deal with flooding and ask ourselves whether we could have done things in a better way.

When the flooding started in Athlone, everywhere I went I was asked why the Army was not out. We need to examine the appropriate point at which the Army should be called out to help with the relief efforts. The whole area of operational efficiencies also needs to be examined. For example, when I requested that the Army prepare food for volunteers, I immediately got the go-ahead from the Minister and the Department. However, I then had to go back to Westmeath County Council to ask it to request the same from the Army. At a later date, I asked the Minister whether the Army could man the pumps in the towns and rural areas to give people a much needed break. He agreed straight away but again I had to go back to Westmeath County Council and it had to request the Army. What is needed is a single co-ordinator or go to person who is available at all times, whether organising the call out of the Army, volunteers, temporary accommodation, food, fuel or even flood relief donations.

I will speak in a moment about the longer-term measures being planned to address flooding issues on the River Shannon but, as I have stated previously, I firmly believe a number of remedial works could be carried out in the short term to alleviate flooding. In 1979, the water levels on Lough Ree were raised temporarily by 2 ft. for navigation purposes and, as far as I am aware, they were never restored to their original levels. This is something which could be done now and would not cost much money.

Reference has been made to the man-made cut at Meelick in Banagher, which allows water to flow from Lough Ree into Lough Derg. However, parts of this cut are very overgrown and desperately need to be cleared. This work should be carried out as soon as possible. As we all know, there is a serious need for dredging on some parts of the river and the cutaway bogs could be used to facilitate the disposal of what is removed. Bord na Mona constantly pipes water into the River Shannon. While it states the volume of water is minimal, when the ESB releases so many cubic metres of water per second at Parteen Weir, we all jump up and down and it makes headlines in the newspapers. Why cannot Bord na Mona just turn off the pumps, even temporarily, to alleviate what we have just been through? There is a very good YouTube video of Meelick Weir in October 2015, which is worth a look. It illustrated to me how the lack of dredging has had a negative impact on the river. It shows that because of the build up of silt, there are islands on the river which were never there before. I want to make it very clear that while, like everybody else, I want to protect birds and wildlife, the protection of people's homes and livelihoods must take priority. We all know the river needs to be maintained.

When the Government came into office in 2011, there were no resources. However, now we almost have the CFRAM report. This report will set out in a clear way the measures required to address flooding and the agencies responsible. There is political will and finance is in place. An official recently stated with regard to the CFRAM study that Athlone could be fully protected for €6 million. If this is the case, I urge the Minister of State to do so as soon as possible.

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