Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I watched the works being done in Kilmallock and I offer my thanks to the fire service staff there and in all the other areas where there was flooding. A 4-tonne digger was dropped off Orr street, a driver operated it for five hours and then left the machine there for one week. A 4-tonne digger was also left on the Charleville Road for one week. There is only one driver and he is being pushed and pulled all over the place. We need year-round staff to do this work.

In Abbeyfeale, a homeowner came out the back door one morning and found that the yard was gone to within 7 ft of his house. The fisheries board would not allow a small bank of earth in the middle of a river that is 35 m wide to be moved so that a machine could be put in to save this person's house. The Minister of State called to that location along with local councillors, so he knows what I am talking about. The fisheries board would not allow what was needed to be done. Derek Higgins told us he cannot do any more work in Kilmallock because the fisheries board will not allow him to do it. The Minister of State saw for himself the flooding that took place in Newcastle West in 2008.

We need full-time, year-round staff to deal with these issues. We do not need a machine to be dropped here, there and everywhere and one driver being told to go to one place for five hours and somewhere else for another five hours. I know the Minister of State is a good person and he will try to deal with these issues. He needs to get a handle on the OPW and its staffing levels. It is not just the staffing levels at the OPW that need to be increased but also in the local authorities. Their streams are attached to the OPW streams, as we can see in all the maps. There is no point in having machines with one driver operating them. There must be adequate staffing and maintenance all year round.

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