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

I saw the reports on television. First, our sympathies are with the people of Donegal for what happened. Second, I want to put on the record of the Dáil and acknowledge that the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, saw the first machines go into the Shannon probably since the Brits were in this country.

That is a fair statement because, my God, it needed doing. It was great to see around Banagher and Meelick the first machines go in, against the wishes of all the so-called non-governmental organisations and every type of expert that tried to tell us it would not work. I welcome that and wish to put on record that it needed doing and still does. It is very easy shouting from the sidelines in opposition, but when someone does good, we must be man enough to say it out straight. No one will come into the House tonight and say the Minister can clean the likes of the River Shannon or rivers in Donegal or whatever overnight. As I have always said, the first start is what is important. At least people will see something is starting to be done after about 70 years of it not being done. It is ferociously important.

I have spoken to the Minister about councils throughout the country. If a pilot scheme is needed to get this going, I have no problem with that. Once upon a time there were schemes here and there right around Ireland whereby rivers and drains were cleaned and water let flow. I have seen some photos of the flooding in Donegal. I am not as familiar with it as the Deputies from Donegal and will never claim to be but I saw trees washed against bridges that blocked water. Many of the water courses in this country are blocked and there is silt in them. If a tree crashes up against a bridge, the water will flow out over it, and when water keeps going it is violent and will take the bridge with it. One does not have to go to Trinity for years to know about water and what it will do.

The councils will not be able to deal with every county overnight, but we could put in place a budget along the lines of the Suck drainage scheme in my area. That is gone. Some of the money is being used on diggers now, in fairness, but the available fund is not enough to catch up, because we are catching up on successive Governments doing nothing, to put it bluntly. In my area we have the likes of the River Suck, which flows into the Shannon. There is also the Brosna. The Minister knows them better than anyone. I have gone up the Shannon. The Minister knows the pinch points on the Shannon. We know them in Deputy Kenny's area in Leitrim. If the likes of Lough Allen were lowered and Jamestown, Tarmonbarry and Roosky done, even just where there are pinch points to get the ball rolling, that would be useful. I know the Minister is familiar with these areas.

I ask that a focus be kept on this. People right across this House have seen what those in Donegal and south Galway went through. They have seen Roscommon, Athlone, Longford, Leitrim and all the other areas, right down to the mouth of the River Shannon. We have seen it in Cork. Why can we not make sure every obstacle is taken out of the way to give a clear run to get this work done? It must be done. I ask the Minister to do it for every county in the upcoming budget.

There is another thing I would like the Minister to start putting a bit of a fire under. There were, and still are, obstacles put in our way by people out measuring rain. We can go back on 40 years of records of rainfall in different places but there are surveys going on at present in some of these turloughs. We need to come up with a fast solution to the likes of Lough Funshinagh, Castleplunket and all the other areas. South Galway can be solved. This is not about my area or our area. It is about all the different areas of Ireland, be it Donegal, Cork, Galway or Roscommon. Wherever there is a problem it can be solved. Funnily enough, when there were no satellites or lasers a long time ago, water was moved better than with all the gear there is now. I ask the Minister to act in this regard.

In Donegal, and indeed the country in general, when a crisis hits, not alone in areas of flooding, but also in farming communities, an awful lot of red tape is put in the way of people affected to access different things. Householders can be affected too. There could be a person with a large mortgage who has kids going to college and who is paying the college fees but who does not qualify for a certain scheme. They might not have a penny in the house that night. We must make sure that things are put in place for those people.

The Minister also has a big problem to face in insurance. I am familiar with MABS. Sometimes it is not even known where people are living. If they were to sell their house this minute, the people living there can get insurance. I saw an incident in recent days where a person was selling their house and a mortgage was pulled because the new tenants could not get insurance, even though there is insurance on the property at present and it is fully covered for flood damage. This is only happening because new people are going to live in the property. Insurance companies are using outdated projected maps on which it is written that they are not official. There is also this great phrase they use when one has a go at them. They will say they did their own assessment, which I believe is codswallop. They are refusing people throughout this country and we must address that situation for those people because it is ferociously unfair to leave them that way.

Another thing the Minister's Department should encourage is that all the council people in the local authorities, be they roads engineers or the executive engineer, go into the Department. I have seen cases in which we might give out that money did not go somewhere, but when we trace it back, there might not have been an application. I have seen some great people. Eugene Dwyer in Roscommon is one of the best at doing this, in fairness to him, but I have seen around different parts of the country that they need to wake up to make sure we draw down this money. Earlier a Deputy referred to somewhere that did not get it. I know the cost-benefit analysis has been sorted and that it is more workable in rural parts of Ireland, but we need to make sure when these questions are asked that the public representatives are told straight out that if they do not make the application, they cannot get the money. It does not come down from Dublin in the train to be used without anyone knowing. These things need to be done. I ask the Minister to put a fund in place to make sure we start a programme. Four or five counties have been badly hit. That fund and a pilot scheme should start to get the ball rolling. I encourage the Minister to keep the focus on the Shannon. I know it will not all be cleaned overnight. We could get the pinch points out as a start. There are trees lying across other rivers and, of course, one will find the do-gooder who will say it cannot be taken it out and there is only one solution. Fish will live, the whole ecology of a river will work and it will always come back if it is kept clean and the flow is kept going.

See this speech in context