Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I wish Senator O'Hara the very best of luck. I look forward to working with him. I work well with his colleagues here and I am sure he will become part of that group.

I also extend my good wishes to the Taoiseach. We hope the Government will continue address the issues of importance to the people. One of those is a major one in my own County Roscommon and has now become a national issue, namely, flooding. I refer in particular to the plight of the people around Lough Funshinagh. This is not just another flooding issue. As some people will know, Roscommon County Council tried to carry out emergency works to prevent houses, homes and farms being flooded. Unfortunately, a case was taken by the Friends of the Irish Environment and Mr. Tony Lowes and that blocked the work from continuing. I look at the state of that countryside now and at people being flooded out. I had a couple on the phone in tears yesterday. The man is 80 and his wife is 78. Their home, their land and their house, has now been flooded with water. This particular problem is now spreading to another village. The couple were crying on the phone and asking how they are going to be taken out if they get sick.

It is an incredible story. All I will say here is I hope emergency legislation can be put through these Houses as quickly as possible to allow Roscommon County Council to take X amount of water out of that lake. It is a turlough that has not emptied. We do not know why. Everything has been done to find out why it is blocked or whatever. This should not be happening. There is utter devastation. I tell my colleagues, no matter what part of the country they are from, that they should go down and see what people are going through. They have no idea what is being done to people in a democratic state. They have no idea and it has to come to an end. I am so hurt for those people and so annoyed for them. We must enact emergency legislation to drop the level of water in that particular turlough. Everything is dead. The trees are dead. The birdlife is dead. The flood has destroyed everything good in the environment and that point is being missed. People are now leaving their homes because they have no option. It must be brought to an end.