Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The first issue I wish to raise relates to the Minister of State's reference to the Shannon Callows SAC. Nowhere on the Government website, where this scheme was announced, along with the details of how to qualify for it and what is required, does the term "SAC" appear. I would like to think that is not an attempt to reduce the amount of compensation to be paid out to farmers whose lands have been flooded and that, all of a sudden, farmers must have lands within the SAC to be eligible. If that is the case, it is deeply regrettable and is a matter I will return to directly with the Minister.

I welcome that a number of farmers have been paid. Of course that is welcome. I have been made aware that a number of farmers for whom 10 ha or more were flooded have only been paid for 3 ha, 4 ha or 5 ha. I would like that to be explained. The Save Our Shannon Organisation has told the Minister many times that the lands of more than 400 farmers have been flooded. The main injustice is in situations where compensation is not available to a farmer whose land has flooded but is available to the farmer next door whose land has also flooded. That should ring alarm bells in the context of the monitoring system that is being used because it is clearly not working.

The wider issue is important. The Minister of State mentioned the position of the Department on the Shannon flood management working group. The intention behind one of the first pieces of legislation I brought forward with colleagues in this House when I was elected in 2020 was to establish one authority to manage and take responsibility for the River Shannon once and for all. While I understand that is not under the direct remit of the Department of agriculture, I ask that the position on the working group is used to progress legislation. Our legislation was debated in November 2020. The Minister said at the time that he would need nine months to do the Government's legislation. That was over three years ago and we are still waiting for it. We need an overall solution. We need to mitigate the flooding. There are clear flaws in the scheme that need to be addressed.

See this speech in context