Flooding Emergency - Seanad Discuss Urgency

Dail Eireann, or Cowen's Ark

SHANNON FLOODING EMERGENCY

from loki in the shanty ballyfinnane;

It is good to see that the Seanad has shown itself not to be an out of date and useless institution.

The following happened in 1978. Thirty-one years ago. Thirty-one years.

Seanad Éireann - Volume 88 - 26 April, 1978
River Shannon Drainage: Motion.
"That Seanad Éireann calls on the Government to commission an up-dating of the Rydell report on the drainage of the River Shannon so that a proper policy can be devised for the development of the river taking into consideration (i) the vast number of agricultural holdings which suffer from severe handicap of occasional and sometimes continuous flooding (ii) the long-term planning for use of the river as a tourist amenity and (iii) the requirements of the State for the use of the river as a source of energy."

The Shannon begins to flood—and I am speaking of the Shannon roughly from Rooskey down to Portumna— taking one year with another, about October. The water continues to creep up for October and reaches its highest point sometime about November and may continue to flood into December. It remains at this high level until mid-April. It is only in the past week that the Shannon level has dropped this year. For people living on the banks of the Shannon, the sight of the water creeping in on their land is something to which they have become used but not reconciled. One can imagine the feelings of a farmer, and, generally, the farmers on the banks of the Shannon are small holders, when he sees his livelihood disappearing under water in October knowing that he will not be able to use whatever area or portion of his holding that remains covered by the flood until the following late Spring. Sometimes the water leaves so late that it is too late to commence any tillage. Sometimes the flood has come up more rapidly than expected and crops of hay have been washed away on the flood. That land is subject to rates and it is aggravating, to say the least, for that farmer to get his rates Bill from the county council and have to pay that bill when the land in respect of which he is paying his hard-earned money is covered by water and is literally useless to him for half the year."
 
I could go on. The motion contains 8,502 words.
 
I must say it.
 
GET THE FUCKERS OUT.