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

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, well in his new role. I visited the site in Drumkeeran with Deputy Harkin and observed the damage she has described. I want to make clear that no turf has been cut on this steep blanket bog. The damage we are seeing has happened followed incessant rain and action must be taken to address it. I spoke earlier today to the CEO of Leitrim County Council, Lar Power, who has RPS Consulting Engineers doing up a report on the situation on Shass Mountain. If the bridge to which Deputy Harkin referred collapses, there will be serious problems.

The Office of Public Works needs to get involved without delay and funds must be given to the county council to ensure it can cater for the works that need doing. A working group must be put together as soon as possible to deal with this emergency. Farmers in the area have put in for the basic payment scheme, the areas of natural constraint scheme and the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme. The bog is sliding down the steep mountain and spreading out and destroying their land. These are small family farms whose owners are working in the difficult conditions that naturally arise in bogland areas. They deserve help in this emergency.

We need the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the OPW, the council and the fisheries and farming bodies to come together and work to put a fund in place. The Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine needs to reach out in the first instance. This problem will not be cleaned up overnight and it will not be solved tomorrow. The Department needs to offer reassurance in respect of any inspections undertaken over the next four to five years for the areas of natural constraint scheme, the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme and other environmental schemes. That is the first thing that needs to be sorted. The roads in the area will also need rectifying.

Deputy Harkin and I spoke last week to an elderly woman and some of the other lovely, salt-of-the-earth people who live in this area. They are frightened that if the bridge at the top of the mountain collapses, nothing will stop the bog from coming down. Local knowledge suggests that there was a lake that disappeared years ago located where the trees have started moving. There are large volumes of material that need sorting out, but the only thing that will really sort this problem out is a proper plan and the money to implement it. Will the Minister of State ensure the different bodies get together to work out a plan? There is no point in scratching our heads for a month until more rain comes and the bridge at the top of the mountain collapses. We will be in trouble then because there are several houses at risk.

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