Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to co-sponsor this Bill with my colleagues here this evening. I acknowledge former Deputy Gerry Adams and Deputy Brian Stanley who introduced a similar Bill back in 2016. At that time, the then Taoiseach warned that the establishment of a single authority was not possible and I welcome that Fine Gael has moved away from that position. Indeed, 20 years ago it was Fine Gael arguing for a single authority and promising to deliver on it when next in government. Fine Gael has gone from promising a single authority, to it not being possible, to today needing another nine months to consider the matter, never mind whose homes, businesses and farmlands will be destroyed in the meantime as we come into the winter months. It is absolute rubbish to suggest that another nine months is needed to look at this matter.

There is not a party in government that has not called for a single authority to co-ordinate flood risk and management along the River Shannon. In 2016, Fianna Fáil brought forward legislation to establish a single authority and on introducing that Bill criticised the slow response of Government to deal with the flooding then. Now they are putting forward a proposal that will lead to a nine-month delay. This Government consistently references the Shannon flood risk State agency co-ordination working group, established in 2016. It is mentioned in the Minister of State's amendment but it has done little or nothing to address flooding along the River Shannon.

Of the so-called significant decisions made by the group since it was established, as stated by the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, in the Dáil last month, three of the five decisions involve carrying out studies, reports and assessments when we are gone far beyond more reports and more studies. One decision includes:

A study to examine the removal of constrictions resulting in lower summer water levels through the Shannon Callows, to help address the summer flooding in this area while maintaining the appropriate navigation requirements.

The Shannon Callows, however, are under water tonight. Some 200 farms have been affected by the now annual flooding of the Shannon Callows. Most of these farms have been under water since July.

I remind the House that it has been said that we need "a single agency to be introduced to bring the separate conflicting interests of the various stakeholders together". These are not my words of concern for the Shannon Callows but those of the Minister of State's colleague, Deputy Barry Cowen, who said this in the local media just six weeks ago. It is disgraceful that after all of the debates, reports and working groups, and all of the talk from Government Deputies over the decades when they have said one thing locally and come to Dublin to do the opposite, we are still arguing for something so practical and sensible. This is now the fifth Bill introduced in this House seeking action on a single authority to manage and maintain the River Shannon. I doubt there is a Government Deputy in this House who has not been out to flooding in his or her constituency to show concern, to say how awful it is and to get his or her photograph taken. Yet after all of that, the Minister of State's message to all the people in the Government Deputies' own communities who are devastated by flooding is to let us wait nine months until next August, and see then. There is no excuse for this delay.

I will conclude by commending the Save our Shannon organisation and all those the length and breadth of the River Shannon who have battled against flooding in their own communities and their own homes, farmlands and businesses for generations. They will not be fooled by the Minister of State's delaying tactic here tonight.

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