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

The Minister is correct in everything he has said. I am not having a go at the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. I am talking about legislation. The Minister mentioned the people of Lough Funshinagh. There is a steering group for those people. This steering group looks like it is going to sit for another three or four years with the way it is going. The water is coming. You cannot stop the water. The problem is the habitats directive and the way it is being enforced here or the way Europe is pushing it and enforcing it on us, with EIAs, appropriate assessments and all of that. When the Government was afraid of the country running out of power, it decided it was able to surpass that by not having to do EIAs and appropriate assessments by using power the Government has. Will somebody in government, please, for the sake of the people in Midleton, Lough Funshinagh, in Galway, in Louth or in any part of the country, give an undertaking to go to Europe and explain we need a new definition of "emergency"? If the water is coming, we need to get these jobs done urgently, and while we welcome the funding given by all of the different Ministers, that is basically a stopgap and it will not stop the water coming next year or the year after.

In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, the money is there but he is being brought to court and being blocked in every way you can be blocked. We have to put a stop to what is going on. A total of 200 m, approximately, of a pipe is left in County Roscommon which would save the homes and the farms of those people and it is at a standstill. You would dig it with a digger in a day, but because of what I would call legislation gone wrong, these works are being blocked. Roscommon County Council cannot stir. Will the Minister give the undertaking that his Government will do it, not next year, but now?

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