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

It is my understanding that Roscommon County Council has issued a letter to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, asking him to take charge of all this, including appropriate assessments, environmental impact assessments, EIAs, and the screening out of works the courts sometimes did not recognise. It is also my understanding that the Minister of State is in the process of putting different agencies together. I want that confirmed. We need to know this.

While we have to do EIAs, screenings out, appropriate assessments and all of this for all these directives that are causing major problems, there is an opportunity and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, needs to get involved. This turlough is dead as a special area of conservation. It can be taken out of designation. The NPWS can and should do that. We are four months away from heavyish rain again. The longer we do not get it, the better for those people in County Roscommon, but there are pumps to try to alleviate houses from being flooded. We need a commitment from the Minister of State that the pumps, their fuelling and the personnel will be put in place because, while we are doing all the screening out and all the different appropriate assessments that have to be done to get this pipe up and running once more, we need to make sure those people are safe. They have gone through torture and we need to solve this.

As the Deputy said, it is not alone Lough Funshinagh. There is also a problem on the Connemara-Mayo border. This will pop up in different places and we need to solve it. Regardless of whether we need legislation, the EU directive cannot destroy the people in County Roscommon.

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