PJ Murphy (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his presence here. I compliment my colleagues, Senators Rabbitte and Daly, on what is very good and much-needed amending legislation. For sure, it is not a silver bullet to solve all flood problems around the Shannon basin, but it is a very definite step in the right direction.

We all understand that, for reasons of navigation, summer water levels need to be maintained on the Shannon.There is a massive tourism industry built around that, with cruises, etc. Again and again, we have seen the reaction to heavy rainfall and the release of water has been too slow. This has had very serious consequences for the whole area of the Shannon, particularly the Shannon Callows in east Galway and Offaly. Huge areas of land have been flooded, causing, as Senator Rabbitte mentioned, massive damage to crops and huge fodder losses, again and again. The callows were one of the last strongholds of the corncrake in Ireland. Due to the unseasonable flooding in summer 2009, the corncrake was deemed extinct in the area in 2010, and has not bred in the area since due to unseasonable summer floods that could have been mitigated had water been released in a timely manner on all the appropriate weirs.

Senator Rabbitte, when a councillor at Galway County Council, and her colleague, Councillor Jimmy McClearn, frequently spoke on the need to dredge several channels in the Shannon Basin, and this amending legislation makes way for that and would facilitate the necessary dredging work.

Over 100 years since the Shannon hydroelectric project and the building of Ardnacrusha, and the whole works that were carried out throughout the Shannon system, only 2% of our national electricity is generated at Ardnacrusha. While it is a renewable source of energy, the damage caused to the whole Shannon river catchment, including the lands and habitats surrounding the river, is immense. One hundred years since our then Taoiseach, W.T. Cosgrave, started the process of building this project, it is time that we, as a country, have a mature conversation about the future of Ardnacrusha, its environmental impact and the environmental long-term future for the Shannon Basin. We must ask whether the generation of 2% of our national electricity justifies all the ecological damage that is done throughout our largest river basin as a result.