Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Rural Independent Group for its vision in bringing forward this motion. I will start by referring to my own constituency, Galway East, and the Gort lowlands, Portumna, Kinvara, Loughrea, Athenry and Claregalway. We have had flooding right across the constituency. We have a unique landscape in Galway East, with many turloughs. Much work has happened in the last four years to alleviate this problem. The scheme at Dunkellin is coming towards a conclusion. It is a drainage scheme that was on the cards for 40 or 50 years. The Claregalway scheme is also nearing completion and it is showing its worth with regard to the money spent and the value obtained. Many local people now have an assurance that the winters will not be as fearful as they once were.

The Gort lowlands were in the public eye in 2009 and 2016 and continue to be. We have had visits by the President, by taoisigh and by different Ministers. When I came into the OPW, the then Minister, Deputy Naughten, and I put in place a collaboration between Geological Survey Ireland and the OPW to come up with some solutions. I am glad to report that we now have an engineering scheme that is environmentally and cost beneficial. That scheme is being brought to the next stage, which is full design and construction. I said when I met the Minister of State that I think it is a scheme we will have to keep our eye on to make sure that it is done in a speedy manner and that we get relief for people in Gort and south Galway who have suffered torrential hardship over many years.

Two other schemes are close to my heart. One is at Portumna, where we need a scheme to protect Portumna and the boating area to make sure the businesses located there are protected and do not move out. I know that is a project in planning and Galway County Council is beginning to move ahead with it. The flood defence scheme for Kinvara is also important. The local area has had a number of flood events. Galway County Council is bringing forward a scheme for that area under the minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme.

There are a few general issues I would like to raise with the Minister of State. We met a number of weeks ago to discuss them but I would like to put my views on the record of the Dáil. There are a few things that I know we need to focus on from my time in the OPW. The minor works scheme, which was introduced by Martin Mansergh when he was Minister of State, is a fantastic scheme. It is of benefit to local authorities to put in applications for small and medium-sized projects costing up to €750,000. However, local authorities have to come up with 10% of the funding for these projects. In these times, maybe we should reduce that to 5% rather than 10% because local authorities, especially in Galway, do not have the resources at the moment. It flies in the face of trying to get the works done.

I introduced a home relocation scheme in 2016. That was a once-off scheme but we must look at that scheme again now to determine how we can put it in place whenever it is needed rather than having to review the scheme or bring forward a new scheme again. At the time, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine undertook a feasibility study of a farmyard relocation scheme because a number of farmyards, especially in Galway, were totally flooded. People had to move their stock out for months. There was significant hardship to the families and animal welfare was threatened too. Micheál Cahill endured this. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine stated in a reply to a parliamentary question from Deputy Naughten in May 2019 that it was looking at the feasibility of the scheme. Maybe it is something we could take up with the Department.

People have mentioned flood insurance. Insurance companies look at flood risk maps and if there is any hint of a flood risk in the area, it is a negative for insurance. This is wrong. They should look at the history of insurance claims for flooding in the area.

Maps are indicative; they are not the full facts. That is something that must be emphasised when the Minister of State is talking to the insurance representatives.

Channel cleaning creates problems throughout the country. There are many anomalies and much confusion. In some cases channels are in the charge of the OPW while other channels or rivers are in the charge of the local authority. Then there are the channels which are under the charge of neither but are the responsibility of the riparian owner. The farmer is usually the riparian owner. Farmers are willing to carry out works, but there is a huge amount of paperwork to be done. We must develop a scheme for the rivers similar to the local improvement scheme. The local authorities could carry out the work and the local farmers could put a small amount of money into it, perhaps 5% of the cost. Everybody wins in that case. The local authority has the expertise to do the consents and to talk to Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to ensure that everything is being done correctly.

Another charge that is made is that when channels are being cleaned out the machinery and buckets being used do not have such an impact that they will get the silt out of the river. It is a very light clean. That is something we must work on with IFI to ensure we can do something meaningful, rather than just have a machine tagging along. Channel cleaning is one of the major things we have neglected over the past 40 years. There was a massive amount of drainage work carried out in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, but then we let it sit. Now we have inherited a problem that must be dealt with. The OPW should provide some funding from the €1 billion available for projects. Small projects such as cleaning the channels every two or three years will have more of an impact than spending millions when a problem has spilled over into communities.

I thank the Minister of State for his time when we met recently. I have many ideas that I will share with him. I also urge him to visit Gort in south Galway and Portumna and to meet the people there so he can get a good sense of what is being done in Galway. I compliment Galway County Council on the fantastic work it has done in making applications for up to €3 million in funding for minor works schemes over the past few years. It is important that the Minister of State encourages the local authorities to make the applications because the local authorities can get the work done speedily.

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