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

Lough Funshinagh in County Roscommon is a turlough. By its nature a turlough has channels underneath where the water goes out. Unfortunately in recent years it has not been functioning as normal. It was designated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Unfortunately, some of the families in the area had to leave because the water level has kept rising. A solution had been found by Roscommon County Council in partnership with the Office of Public Works, OPW, under emergency powers. There are 1949 emergency powers to allow local authorities to act where people's lives or properties are in danger. The council in Roscommon used these powers. Unfortunately, Friends of the Irish Environment, FIE, which is funded by the Government, decided to take a case against it and stop the works. The High Court judgment came last week. The judge very clearly stated the 1949 emergency powers are redundant.

There has been no comment from the Taoiseach or the Government over the past week. The Taoiseach might not be worried about ten families in County Roscommon but I am because they are my constituents. He might worry about flooding out the road in Portrane or in his constituency in Cork. I know about jobs throughout the country, in Doonbeg in Clare, in Galway and in several other parts of the country, where houses are at risk or will fall into the sea, and because these emergency powers have been struck down in the courts - I would question why - these people have been left redundant, so to speak. Because of these powers being struck down, a county manager has no emergency power and the OPW has been left redundant.

In Roscommon, money was spent on a pipe as the sensible option to take the overflow from the lake. What is very worrying is that it has come to my attention, and unfortunately the council did not even tell me but I found out in Dublin, that over the past six to eight months someone in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications got onto the Chief State Solicitor's Office. Be that a Minister or a Secretary General, the person got on to the Chief State Solicitor's and the Attorney General. From what I understand, the State joined the FIE against the council. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications or the Chief State Solicitor's Office was going to join with an unelected group against the council in a case in County Roscommon.

Is the Taoiseach aware that in the wake of this judgment, water on the road cannot be let into a ditch unless screening is done? Will the Taoiseach find out whether it was Minister or who it was who made the call to the Chief State Solicitor's Office and the Attorney General to get involved in this? Will he hold an inquiry into it? County Roscommon might not matter to the Taoiseach but I predict it will happen in Cork. Will the Taoiseach get the Government to look at this? If it had happened in Dublin or Cork, there would have been a meeting of the Government last week, but because it happened in a rural area, there was not a word about it. Will the Taoiseach give undertakings to do this?

See this speech in context