Published: Friday, 5th March, 2010 4:00pm

IFA raise concerns over Offaly river maintenance in EU

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At a meeting in Brussels this week, the leader of the IFA Flood Project Team Michael Silke raised serious concerns about the use of EU environmental legislation to put a stop to essential river maintenance work.

Mr Silke, who led a delegation of farmers from Galway, Roscommon, Offaly and Westmeath to meetings with officials from the EU Commission and MEPs, said the EU must recognise that the massive human suffering and devastation caused last December was related to the total lack of maintenance of river channels all over Ireland.

He told the commission that it is not good enough to use the EU Habitats Directive to halt maintenance works, while at the same time, people were experiencing damage to their houses and livelihoods.

The EU Commission told Michael Silke that member states must implement the EU Floods Directive which sets a timeframe for the completion of a flood relief plan and its subsequent implementation. "An opportunity now exists for the Irish Government to come up with a plan that takes account of the urgent need to keep Ireland's river channels open," he concluded.