Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

------and everything will come back if the river is kept clean. There are ways of solving the pearl mussel problem. We have seen in Mayo the expertise that was brought in, how it was done and how it can be successful. People need to make sure that we find solutions and not keep creating problems.

In the line of insurance, there are serious problems around the country. I know the Minister of State has visited a guy who has put reinforcement in right the way around his house and has put an idea to use. It will be interesting to see whether the insurance company will insure that person. The insurance companies are coming out with their own palaver about what they are insuring and not insuring. I believe we need to go down the road of getting our own figures for the simple reason that I do not trust the insurance companies. They will tell us what they want to tell us because it suits them. It is another task that has to be done. It is another task that we have talked about for 20 years but have not tackled. Now it has to be tackled for once and for all.

I have seen maintenance machinery from America. If we put the likes of that in the Shannon, it is unbelievable the amount of work that could be done. No one is going to say that that one thing will solve everything. We may need to be able to park water in places. I know the people in Carrick-on-Shannon, Mr. John Dunne in particular, have produced their own plan for Lough Allen. In 1976, there was a beach on Lough Allen that had 300 people at it every day. Today, one would never think there was a beach on it because the levels of the water have risen. Anyone who understands any bit of digging work at all knows that we can have the beach, the cruiser and the environment, provided that we make way for it. If there is an area of rocks sticking up, unfortunately for the whole area around it, the navigational level will be affected by it. We have to make sure to take that out.

I know the previous Deputy spoke about how CFRAM is going to be one of the ways forward. When CFRAM representatives came to Athleague, the most important river that flooded the town in Athleague was left out of the CFRAM report. I spoke about this publicly before. I believe it is disgraceful that the Silver Stream was left out of the report on Athleague. That should not be tolerated.

There is a long way to go. Let us not cod people that tonight, in six months or in a year everything will be solved. It will not. We need different measures in different places. There are places that may have no solution but to get a big pump in and pump the water from one area to another. That may have to be done. At the end of the day, if we do not make room for the river, we are going nowhere. Where trees and bushes are growing, they need to be taken out and taken out rapid.

In my opinion, we need one authority over the rivers. I was alarmed when I saw Irish Water going on about giving €1 million to the ESB when they were discussing bringing water to Dublin. Irish Water now has hardly enough money for itself, not to mind giving €1 million to the ESB. Water is rain that comes down from the sky. I do not see why anyone has the right to say that it is their water. We started like a car that would not start; we were slow to get going. In fairness, things are picking up. I urge the Minister of State to keep the pressure on. If the Minister of State can solve the likes of south Galway, Roscommon, Mayo and Cork, about which there was an announcement yesterday, before this Government's term finishes, then a good day's work will have been done.

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