Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that a meeting is going to take place today. Ideally, this conversation with the Minister of State would happen after the meeting but the reality is nothing new will be discussed. The problem is that the upstream section is falling between two stools and no one is taking responsibility. My suggestion is a simple one. I am suggesting an extension pursuant to section 12 of the Arterial Drainage Act 1945 to include upstream as part of the existing drainage scheme. That would make it the responsibility of the OPW. It would assist in making it the responsibility of someone.

In the second part of the matter I have raised I asked what maintenance has been carried out. An official has provided the Minister of State with an answer but he has not described any work. No work has been carried out. The Minister of State will have seen the photographs of the vegetation and overgrowth downstream. I appreciate the Minister of State could not see the silt because there was water in the channel. Nothing has been done. I guarantee the Minister of State that if he asked his officials or the people in the area, he will find out that there is no action plan or scoping document on how the OPW is going to do the maintenance. It is not simply a case of us asking the OPW to do it, the OPW is obliged to do so.

I accept the point about the cost. We can all talk pie in the sky. This is a simple matter. We are not talking about dredging. I have made inquiries on the matter. The work involves putting a machine on the bank and taking away the vegetation encroaching into the river channel as well as the silt. This work would clear the channel and allow the water to flow more freely from the town to Lough Conn. This, in turn, would hopefully assist in mitigating the risk of flooding. The first flood saw two inches of water going in. One could not but argue that this work would at least assist in allowing water to move more freely.