Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill. It is not the first time we have seen a Bill of this nature. I was doing research earlier and discovered that my former colleague, Willie Penrose, brought forward a similar Bill in 2000. The issue has been ongoing for a long time. With due respect to our colleagues in Sinn Féin, they are not the first to the party on this matter. There were attempts as late as 2016 by Fianna Fáil and Deputy Troy, who is now a Minister of State, to publish a Bill on this. Up until last March, Deputy Troy gave a commitment to his constituents that he supported the establishment of a single Shannon authority with statutory powers. March is not very long ago. In fact, a former Taoiseach, John Bruton, gave a commitment on the issue as well, fadó fadó. This is not new and every party and none has supported the principle of the establishment of a single authority.

I did not receive a copy of the Minister of State's speech, but I listened carefully to what he said. My understanding of the Government amendment is that the Bill is deemed to be read "a second time this day nine months, to allow for an examination on the legislative landscape including a review of the current regulatory environment". One could take that at face value, but I believe the Minister of State qualified his words later in the debate when he said "if appropriate", so Members should forgive me if I am a little jaundiced in my view of whether we will ever see the establishment of a single Shannon authority with statutory powers. What the Minister of State is telling us in a coded way, if I am interpreting him correctly, is that there are too many regulatory issues and requirements in each of the statutory bodies that are involved in the Shannon flood risk State agency co-ordination working group, which is an awful mouthful, to bring them together to form one agency. The amount of legislation that would be required to do that would probably have the House dealing with it until kingdom come.

However, we should try, because the problems continue. I have evidence of the work of the OPW in my constituency of Cork East. Towns such as Mallow and Fermoy were always top of the news headlines whenever there was a flooding incident. These towns have benefited from excellent work carried out by the OPW on flood alleviation. However, there is still the perennial problem of the Shannon. I represent a Cork constituency, but I recognise the fact that the good people who live in the hinterland of the River Shannon are still encountering problems. Notwithstanding the facts that there are flood risk management plans, annual work programmes and the Minister of State has set up a short- and medium-term working group, and I accept the bona fides of the Minister of State in this regard, there are still issues in respect of having a view of where we want to go and what the policy is from a high-level perspective with regard to statutory powers, so money can start to flow into each of the problems that affect the people who live on or near the River Shannon. The best way to do this is through a statutory agency.

I will repeat the point that was made earlier in respect of the Shannon flood risk State agency co-ordination working group. It has not met regularly. It does not have statutory powers as a co-ordination group. I know from past experience - I have been where the Minister of State is now - that there will always be competing agencies in which egos are large, there are turf wars taking place and there is a non-acceptance of responsibility. The evidence of that is on the River Blackwater at present. There is a weir that is in such a woeful state of repair that when all the State agencies appeared before the petitions committee of this House last year, each one of them disavowed any responsibility for the repair of said weir. People's experience has been, and it is hard not to be cynical about this, that they have been led up the hill on too many occasions in the past and promised much, but very little has been delivered.

I accept the bona fides of the Minister of State, but I do not accept the response from the Government to this issue. There is a significant majority view on this. Certainly in Fianna Fáil it was evidenced by its Bill and statements as late as last March, while there is a history in Fine Gael of supporting the principle of setting up a State agency. Sinn Féin is now proposing it and we are supporting it. We brought forward legislation previously on this issue. I do not believe we should be cowed by the challenge it entails. One should be honest with people about what one is trying to do and tell them that it could take a number of years to establish.

If the Minister is honest and forthright with people about the fact that it will take time to put in place alleviation measures, I think they will accept that. What they do not accept is being promised something in March and then, in November, for one of the three parties in power to come in to stand over a Government amendment which says that on this day in nine months' time Second Stage will be read. That is not the way to do business here. We saw it with the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill and the sick pay scheme. I appreciate the fact that when there is a tripartite Government, everybody has to be kept on board and happy. However, that does not answer the questions posed by people have live within the Shannon region and who, as it were, are served by the Shannon.

I ask that the Government accept the Second Reading of the Bill tonight and that we would, through the various line committees of the Oireachtas, grapple with what is a serious and laudable aim of every party in this House, namely, to have one agency responsible for dealing this issue. If there are challenges from a regulatory point of view in terms of aligning and legislating for that, then let us just do it and manage the expectations around what it is that is trying to be achieved. It is not an insurmountable challenge. Ireland is a small country. People know each other. By and large, relationships are informal. If a couple of heads have to be knocked together to make it happen in the State agencies, let it be so, but let us try to be progressive about dealing with this issue. Let us get on with the business. It has been going on for donkey's years at this stage.

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