Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's luck is in. He has three Deputies from the same constituency of Sligo-Leitrim, north Roscommon and south Donegal, namely, Deputies MacSharry, Feighan and myself, all raising the same issue, which is the promise of the new Garda station in Sligo. I will not labour it as I have heard the Minister's responses. I was very pleased to hear the Minister refer to it as a very important policing and Garda station requirement. I must add, however, that there is extreme disappointment among the public in Sligo and especially among the gardaí at the waste of money, at a site left idle, at the effective downgrading Sligo as a policing location and crucially, for those who work there, at a building that is not fit for purpose. There is talk of upgrading it. I do not know if the Minister knows Sligo Garda station, but I do. One would freeze there in the winter. I want to lay down a marker. Before there is any talk of upgrading that building, which is what I believe is proposed, there needs to be a full assessment of a full retrofit. There is a commitment in the programme for Government for ten times the amount of retrofitting. I am not an engineer but I can put a small bet that the cost of a full retrofit on Sligo Garda station would probably be greater than the cost of any new build. I want the Minister to consider that a new build would be the best solution and the value for money solution.

Deputy Feighan raised the issue of flooding on the Shannon. Earlier this year my Dáil colleagues were in Carrick-on-Shannon several times watching water rise, businesses being flooded and land being flooded. I have been on the Sligo-Dublin train several times and have looked gingerly out the window as water has lapped at the very edge of the train tracks. They were pumping in Carrick-on-Shannon but the problem is that because of the typography and the levels there was nowhere for the water to go. Water and walls just will not work in Carrick-on-Shannon. The water will seep under any wall. I know there are no simple solutions but these flood risks can be alleviated or at least mitigated by dealing with some of the pinch points on the Shannon.

In 1883 a weir and a lock were built in Jamestown which even at that time were not built according to plan. To this day, that causes a problem when the river is in flood. Trees have fallen in and there is silting. The Minister does not know the area but not far away at Knockvicar there is a weir three times as long. This gives the Minister some idea of the issues they face.

The bottom line is that the Shannon is a piece of infrastructure to which nothing has been done since the foundation of the State. Somebody remarked to me that not a teaspoon of water has been taken out but millions of tonnes of silt and peat have been deposited. The flow can be speeded up at Jamestown. When people hear this, they throw their hands up in horror and say "What about further down the river?". The flow at Jamestown is 140 cu. m per second, in Athlone, it is 500 cu. m and at Parteen, it is 800 cu. m. I put it to the Minister that there is flexibility there to do that.

We also need to look at the water levels in Lough Allen. There are solutions and at the beginning of this year people in Carrick-on-Shannon expected that some of those solutions would be put in place. It has not happened. What can be done?

Flooding can never be gotten rid of but we can mitigate the risks. If those risks can be mitigated using some of the measures I mentioned and perhaps others, although forgetting about the building of walls in Carrick-on-Shannon, then I ask the Minister to consider them.

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