Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta Ó Murchú as an tairiscint a chur síos. I thank Deputy Eugene Murphy for tabling this motion which gives us an opportunity to discuss and debate this very important issue. This time last year I was watching television over several nights and I saw Boxer Moran, who is now a Deputy, literally pushing back the water. He explained earlier how he kept the water back. If one wants to get work done, one asks people who know how to do it. We have such people here, in Deputy Moran and in the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, who is a quantity surveyor. He understands how this work is done. The problem is that the agencies that have been dealing with this do not understand it and do not want to know about it. All they want is cushy jobs, imposing fines.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae referred to farmers being prosecuted. They are being prosecuted for going to the riverbank and taking scrub away. They have to pay on-the-spot fines to the Environmental Protection Agency, literally in their fields, without ever going to court. Is that justice? They are being told to pay up now or the fine will be doubled in court. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark as they say and it is rotten here too.

I hope that the work will continue. I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Canney for coming to Tipperary to see the areas that were flooded last year. He looked at the eight homes in Clonmel that were flooded, the 50 homes in Carrick-on-Suir, the GAA hall in Kilsheelan and one business in my own village. He saw and then he delivered. He went back to the Department and got the money. However, I want him or a senior official in his Department to pick up the telephone in the morning and ask Mr. Marcus O'Connor, the director of services for roads in Tipperary why he has not spent that money. The money was approved but the council is now pussy footing around and is afraid to invoke the 1993 Roads Act which is in place to direct water off roads. The Department gave them the money, the people are living in peril waiting for the floods to happen again but they will not do the work. They are like the dog in the manger. They want the bone and will not give it to another dog. Let some dog do it. I know the dogs that will and can do it.

Last year there was a massive landslide on the land of a farmer in Deputy Mary Butler's Waterford constituency, Mr. Michael Dunne. I thank Mr. Damien Tiernan from RTE who returned to the farm last week. Not one sod has been lifted. Mr. Dunne's cattle shed was flooded and his animals had to be removed. His house is danger. I urge the Minister to visit the farm to see it for himself and to get Coillte or some other agency to take responsibility.

Insurance was referred to earlier. I also heard mention of an MOU. All we want is a big machine to remove the silt from the rivers, not a memorandum of understanding behind which the insurance companies can hide. They do not want to provide insurance. A job was done in Clonmel and only eight houses flooded last year but no company will provide insurance for anyone living within five miles of the place. They are codding us. The only memorandum of understanding that is needed is for Deputy Moran and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney to tell them that they must insure people once work is carried out to defend against a one in one hundred year flood event.

The Deputy and the Minister of State know how the work should be done. They must get the EPA to move aside. It should be sent out to pick weeds or something rather than going out and prosecuting farmers for taking timber out of rivers. The rivers must be cleaned to let the water flow.

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