Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy Mansergh. I compliment him and his officials on visiting the areas that were flooded to get first-hand knowledge of what exactly happened. The Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Smith, and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, were also very active in inspecting the areas affected. My colleagues in the House have visited sites affected in their areas and saw the desolation caused by the flooding. It has caused hardship. It is only when one sees the areas that were flooding, as the Minister of State did in Athlone, in Cortorber, Carrick-on-Shannon, and elsewhere that one realises the damage caused to homes and how it has affected families.

The Minister of State made a good speech and outlined the issues with which he is dealing, but he did not mention the River Suck, a tributary of the River Shannon. Management of the River Suck comes under the River Suck Drainage Board, which receives a small allocation from Galway County Council and from Roscommon County Council. That board is chaired by my colleague, councillor Martin Connaughton from Athleague. That board has staff and engineers who would carry out some remedial work to assist in this regard, but it will require further assistance from the Office of Public Works.

The River Suck flows through the villages of Castlecoote, Athleague and Ballyforan. The village of Athleague was flooded for the first time possibly ever. Three public houses in the village are now closed and they will not reopen until at least after Christmas. This has caused widespread difficulties and some 18 families have been relocated for the period. I would like the Office of Public Works in conjunction with Roscommon County Council to inspect the area towards the Castlecoote side of the village of Athleague where the River Suck burst its banks; the river water flowed through the behind the village and then flooded the village. With some work carried out there, perhaps with the erection of barriers on the edge of the River Suck, the risk of flooding in that village could be alleviated in future. People have no confidence that flooding will not recur in that area in the future. Restoration work is being done on the public houses, a butcher's shop and an electrical shop, which was completely flooded but, thankfully, the neighbours had removed all the electrical goods before the flood waters rose. The town of Athleague was closed. I ask the Minister of State to deal with that specific area and I ask the officials to discuss the matter with Roscommon County Council.

The Minister of State inspected the flood damage in Cortober on the River Shannon. A recent development there was, unfortunately, built on a flood plain on the banks of the River Shannon. Glancy's supermarket, the cinema and a chemist shop in that area were flooded. I was unable to visit the area when the Minister of State was there as I had to attend the Joint Committee European Scrutiny at 11.30 a.m. I know of flood damage that occurred there first hand and I know the Minister of State has shown great concern about it.

Without management of the River Shannon flooding will recur there, of that there is no doubt. I do not know what the people want to do in regard to the issue of insurance. Once off payments for damage incurred will be made but people will not be given insurance cover again.

I wish to refer to the report of a committee chaired by my late colleague, the former Deputy Seán Doherty. I compliment his work; he had a great interest in the River Shannon. That report, which was a far-reaching document, was published in March 2002. The then committee put an enormous amount of work into it and it included members' local knowledge of the particular areas. It is an excellent document for the officials of Departments to study to determine how some of its recommendations at least could be implemented. The late Seán Doherty, who lived all his life near a tributary of the River Shannon, knew the river very well and knew at firsthand the devastating effect of flooding in that area. It is a fitting tribute that his name is being mentioned in the Oireachtas again on the basis of a report of a committee he chaired in 2002. Many of the ideas he put forward at that time, if implemented, would be of great assistance to the constituents he served in Dáil Éireann and in Seanad Éireann from 1977.

I will not go through the Minister of State's speech because it is wide-ranging and effective. I spoke to him about projects in Roscommon and I understand the direction that will be taken is that the local authorities will apply to the Office of Public Works regarding small projects that could be implemented to alleviate flooding in the future.

Dealing with Roscommon town, the flooding occurred on the Lanesboro Road and the Golf Links Road where businesses were flooded. They included an electrical shop and a garage. The Health Service Executive offices could not be accessed as the flood waters reached the front door. On the Golf Links Road, Gerry McNulty's carpet and furniture store, Lynch Flooring and a restaurant were all flooded for a period. As I said to the Minister of State, the site for the new offices for the registration department were flooded. I took a photograph of them. The foundations are in place. With respect to the Minister of State who would not have been aware of this, with hindsight the site may not have been the best site for the Office of Public Works to purchase because its siting there resulted in the flood waters moving down towards the other sites, but such flooding can be alleviated. The Minister of State, who has responsibility for the Office of Public Works, which is responsible for this building being erected on this site, has responsibility now to open the River Jiggy in Roscommon town, which leads in to the River Hind. There will be major difficulty in cleaning the River Hind because the question of conservation of a particularly rare species of trout arises. I know the difficulty that might arise but arrangements can always be made to address it. To my knowledge there is only one outlet from Roscommon town and the areas that were flooded were areas that flooded every winter when I was young. They have now flooded again but the buildings are in place and they have resulted in the flood waters moving over to other sites. That is a fact.

I express sympathy to the people of Ballinasloe who were very badly affected by the flooding, which came from the River Suck. That river flows down by Castlecoote and on this occasion a massive volume of water came through the village of Castlecoote, where I come from. All the tributaries coming into it were all at high flood level, the highest we have ever witnessed in our time.

Regarding a village called Four Roads, three houses were flooded. I attended a meeting on Monday morning with all the local authority members, Oireachtas Members and Rev. Fr. Francis Beirne, the parish priest of Four Roads and the Dysart area. He called together all the neighbours and friends. I inspected one the of the houses and it was devastating to witness the damage done; the lovely oak floors were taken up and gone. They will never feel safe again in that house because they do not know whether the flooding will return.

Through its structure and the office of the Minister of State, the council is carrying out extensive surveying at present and taking levels to establish if there is some way in which they can alleviate the flooding at Four Roads. I hope that in the budget on 9 December, which will be very difficult, the Minister of State will be given adequate funds to carry out these remedial tasks. It is absolutely vital.

There is also the matter of job creation to be considered in this area and there is an opportunity for JCB drivers, currently under-worked and under-utilised, to start working to try to ensure these floods will not recur to the same level. Whether it is global warming or whatever, the rainfall in November was the greatest on record. This will be very difficult.

Last week on the Adjournment, I raised the matter of a house at Milltown, Castleplunkett, owned by Mr. Padraig Lyons. There is no river in the surrounding area and the house was built on a good site on a farm and dates back hundreds of years. His father and family live there and his aunt, who is 97 years of age, told him there was never flooding as long as she could remember. The flooding came from an unknown water source, probably a drain that was blocked. His insurance company would be better off to arrange for his relocation. The Minister of State referred to relocation issues. There was flooding in south Roscommon in 1979. At that time we relocated eight families for whom there was no possibility of every returning to the area because of the danger of repeated flooding. Insurance companies should be aware of the issues and provide compensation to allow families in certain areas to relocate because they will be subject to flooding in future. I thank the Minister of State for his speedy reaction to this crisis. Previously, I referred to the Shannon authorities and there is no point setting up a quango at this stage. There are enough personnel in place and I have great faith in the Office of Public Works which is leading this campaign.