Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for visiting Athlone and spending an extensive time communicating with and talking to people on the ground. He did not give the impression that he was in a hurry and that was greatly appreciated in the Athlone area. Like the Minister of State I extend sympathy to the people who are still suffering because the water has not gone down. It is an ongoing issue. We may think when the weather improves that the flooding has gone away but it has not. There are people still out of their homes and surrounded by water in the Athlone and midlands areas.

We need to discuss the economic and the social effects of the flooding. There are elderly people still marooned and surrounded by water. That has a psychological impact on individuals. I have never experienced such devastation and heartache. I wonder where it will end because people's homes are destroyed. I would like to keep in touch with the Minister of State to update him continuously on where we go from here and how to help these people. The point of contact in the midlands with the Civil Defence is second to none. They are still knocking on doors and monitoring how people are doing, and providing the very basics such as food and fuel. People's oil systems were destroyed and they had no heat in their homes. Being surrounded by water with no heat or food is quite depressing. Members of the Civil Defence knocked on doors and found out if people needed prescriptions, food and fuel. They took the time to do this, even though they are all volunteers. I cannot speak highly enough about the Civil Defence and I know the Minister of State commended them when he was in Athlone. There was also a great response from the community and from the local authority.

I met a man last week in Athlone who has a fairly decent job and has never been behind in his payments, but already had negative equity in his house. He bought the house last year for €165,000 and he was told by the assessor that his flood damaged house was valued at €50,000. This young man has a mortgage with Halifax. He went to negotiate a deal to freeze his mortgage. He was told by the callous organisation that the debt was his and that is was up to him to pay it. He has to rent another place because he has nowhere else to live. I find this appalling and we should intervene in this type of situation, of which there are many.

The Minister of State said the €10 million was for humanitarian aid. I welcome that, because this is what it is for. It will not help people get back into their homes. It was an immediate response for accommodation and food for people. Have we made any request to Europe on funding for those who have suffered?

With the conference in Copenhagen coming up, I believe we need to face up to our responsibility on climate change and global warming. We are a small country, but we must make a very strong argument in Copenhagen about global warming and how it is affecting us as a small country.

The Minister of State commented in Athlone that because the whole country was not affected, it was not necessarily a state of emergency. By God, it was a state of emergency for the people who were affected. Just because Dublin was not affected does not mean that it was not a state of emergency. We had a difficult situation in Athlone because the unions were going on strike on the Tuesday after the floods, and the directive from the union leadership was that there was no state of emergency and that the local authority workers were to abide by the strike. This was really difficult for the workers. What constitutes a state of emergency? How will we respond to that in future? If the Army and other services had been put in place on time, many more homes in the midlands would have been saved from the floods?

I have strong concerns about public health as the waters are beginning to recede in the aftermath of the floods. We have a serious problem with vermin and sewerage. This has never happened before in my lifetime. I do not know how to respond to people who tell me that they have rats in their kitchen. We need a lot of money in the midlands to deal with these issues.

Organisations such as the ESB, the OPW, the NPWS and Waterways Ireland all had a say and were all trying their best, but there was no one statutory body that took absolute responsibility. The Minister of State referred to the water framework directive, but that is still a cop-out because it has no statutory power. We have some wonderful reports on this. The Rydell report of 1954 is still very relevant. The Doherty reports of 2000 and 2002 are very good as well. We do not need another report, so the Minister of State does not need to commission another report. The 2002 report stated "There is no organisation or agency which has a statutory duty to take initiatives to prevent or reduce the incidence of flooding, or to alleviate its consequence". It goes on to state that there is a lack of co-ordination and a lack of common purpose. That is what I saw.

At the meeting with the Minister of State in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel last Sunday, his fine officials from the OPW gave us factual and coherent figures. However, I had a conversation an hour before with a head of operations at the ESB who gave a completely different set of figures. That is the epitome of the lack of co-ordination, joined up thinking and disarray among the various bodies. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has a completely different brief, as it is interested in protecting wildlife. The objective of Waterways Ireland relates to navigation of our waterways during the summer. I respect these organisations, as well as the OPW, but we need one organisation that will take a lead and provide the right direction as to what must be done.

The IFA came out strongly on the issue during the week. I am connected with farming and with what is happening on the ground in the countryside. The 2000 report chimes with what the IFA representatives said last week. There has not been maintenance of the River Shannon and its tributaries for 70 years. Siltation has been allowed to build up. Bord na Móna has done excellent work and has provided tremendous employment in the midlands, and it was obliged to have siltation ponds. Who has monitored these ponds? Are they obliged to pay for maintenance to the River Shannon? I do not think so, because I have never seen any evidence of it.

We do not need any more reports. We have all the excellent reports that have been laid before the House, and the 2000 report recommended that we have one authority. This has not yet happened. It is interesting to look at the Rydell report from 1954 because nothing has changed. All of the recommendations in 1954 still apply, so we should not spend any more money on consultants, research or further reports.

The Minister of State met with a constituent of mine in Athlone. She made a suggestion to export water and develop an industry around that. Can the Minister of State comment on that?

The ESB does an excellent job in producing electricity and we believe that this must happen. However, the company has far too much control over our waters. For at least 70 years, it has had absolute control of how Lough Allen and Lough Ree have functioned. When the Lough Erne channel opened, there was no more flooding in that area because the channel flows into Lough Allen and Lough Ree and then into Lough Derg. There are many sluice gates, including at Parteen, which the Minister of State visited. It stands to reason that if sluice gates and dams are opened, the water will flow. My question has not been answered with regard to why the water was not allowed to flow steadily for a longer time and why there was such a build-up. I accept the amount of rain was unprecedented but, while I am not an engineer, I know that if water is blocked by a dam or a sluice gate, it cannot escape. I want to know why there was such a disaster in Cork involving the Inniscarra dam. I need answers to these basic, logical questions.

The other issue concerns structures around the River Shannon. The Minister of State showed us a fine report on flood defences in recent days at the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I was surprised at how much has been spent in all the other areas while not a single cent has been spent on flood defence in the Athlone area. If the Minister of State is willing to return to Athlone, I can show him where and how money can be spent on flood defences in the area.

The area of Shannon Harbour is close to my heart, as is the River Shannon. It gives much pleasure but also provides resources and money through tourism. However, it is both frightening and devastating when it is not managed. As I said earlier, it needs to be managed by just one authority. The flood defences at Shannon Harbour are very old - Victorian - and I question the safety of some of the docks and other structures around Athlone. We saw what happened in Cork, where the defence at the Mercy Hospital was washed away. I would like more information on the scheme to maintain these flood defences.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Gormley's, new guidelines in regard to planning. One of my first positions on the town council when I was elected in 1999 was to vote against a development in a special area of conservation. When Duchas was disbanded, this area was no longer deemed a special area of conservation and masses of apartments were built on what is a flood plain. I agree with the guidelines but I want to highlight that the councillors are not always at fault. While they have the responsibility to zone land, it is the executive that grants planning permission. Local authority councillors are the ones who have the best interests of an area at heart. There has to be joined-up thinking. I advocate one lead agency and that no more money is spent on reports.