Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not be supporting the Bill because many people are being prosecuted in the wrong. We need to know how many people were prosecuted in the wrong. They must have the fines returned and their characters restored before I will vote for anything like this. This Bill is intended to protect fish stocks, which is a goal I support. I support fishing, the tourism product it creates and the people it brings in. However, that is not its effect. The Bill will ensure that more landowners and farmers are prevented from taking anything out of the rivers they and their forefathers protected and kept clear. All of our rivers are blocked. It is each and every one of them. The Flesk and all other rivers in mid-Kerry are blocked and choked and no farmer can touch them because of what is termed "cost compliance". If Inland Fisheries Ireland officials come upon a farmer, he or she will lose payments which is enough to deter anyone from going near a river and clearing it out. They are all blocked. We are told the Shannon has not been cleaned out since the 19th century when it was done by the British. We are now talking about building walls, banks and flood defences at a cost of millions while, as Deputy Mattie McGrath says, consultants are paid to carry out report after report. If there was some way to jack up the houses and roads, that is what we would be told to do. That cannot be done, however. Nevertheless, the Government is insisting that one road in Kerry must be raised but it will realise when it tries it that houses further along will be flooded if it is done. That is in the Flesk valley and the Government will not get away with it.

I am very sad also that Deputy Mick Wallace blamed farmers here tonight. I know only too well how much money farmers have spent over the years to build slatted tanks and to comply with the nitrates regulations and directives. It was very unfair of him. I would much prefer if he were here when I mention his name but I do not see him. It was very wrong of him to blame farmers for reduced fish stocks in our rivers because the fact is that it is the factory ships in the bays that are cleaning the whole thing out. The fish cannot come up. They cannot get near the Flesk, Roughty or Sheen rivers in Kerry because they are stopped in the bay by factory ships that can clean everything out in one hour. Why does the Government not do something about that and prosecute those fellows given that it is where the problem is? We have to tell the truth about this. Fish will not survive where rivers are closed in with bushes because they need sunlight, but that is not being recognised or dealt with at all. Most of our rivers are covered in with the bushes from both sides meeting in the middle. The fish cannot see any daylight, which is another reason they are not as plentiful as they were in times gone by.

I do not accept either the remarks Deputy Wallace made about septic tanks because I know how strict local authorities are in granting planning permissions to young couples trying to put roofs over their heads. They must go through many hoops to build those septic tanks. There may be a few here and there but they are not the cause of the problem as he is outlining it. As Deputy Mattie McGrath said, previous Governments denied local authorities the funding to bring their treatment plants up to scratch. It was supposed to happen in 2008 and 2009 and we were going to be fined €500,000 in each case by Europe. Local authority members voted to increase levies because of it but it has not happened. The sewage is still flowing into the rivers and seas from towns and villages. Why does the Government not deal with that? That is how it would see the thing coming right again after a few years but it will not do it. It continues to perch on the vulnerable, namely, farmers and the young couples installing septic tanks at their own cost and to a certain standard. It is very unfair to blame them and many others like them.

I will not vote for the Bill until the Government makes some attempt to return money to the people it fined and to the farmers it frightened from their own rivers, denying them to right to clear rivers and causing the whole place to be flooded. The country is flooded because our rivers are full to the brim. Some consultants suggest raising the banks and building walls and defences, which is a cod. The Government is not fooling me and it will not fool the people. The rivers need to be cleaned out but the Government is ensuring it will fine anyone who goes near them. Doing good is what it is at.

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