Shannon dredging plan good for Offaly say locals

There has been a warm local welcome for the news the long sought dredging programme on the River Shannon is to finally proceed.

The maintenance programme was announced last Friday morning in a statement by Shannon Flood Risk State Agency Co-ordination Working Group, which was set up by the Government after last year’s floods to better co-ordinate the State agencies involved in the river.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, chairman of Offaly IFA John Keena said that the news about the dredging programme has been welcomed by local farmers who had been calling for a similar measure to be introduced for a long time.

“It has to be welcomed. We had a meeting with Deputy Kevin Moran in Banagher a couple of weeks ago and he indicated what would happen.

“The maintenance programmed needs to take the pinch points out of the river as well as rocks and silt that have built up.

“If it gets that water moving quicker that what we were lookn for, so when the floods come that water will get mvoed away quicker.”

Shannon Harbour farmer Paddy Towey's home was flooded in last winter's flood and he hasn't been able to move in since.

Earlier this year he was offered funding for repairs under the governments flood relief scheme, but he refused it as he said that it wouldn't cover the costs.

While he welcomed the news about the dredging programme, Mr Towey told the Offaly Independent that the government still has to provide adequate compensation for people whose homes were baldy damaged in last year's floods.

“There's been plans and plans and surveys and survey but we ant relief.

“It's a year on and I'm still out of my house. The dredging of the Shannon is no relief to me.”

In a statement released on Friday, the Shannon Flood Risk State Agency Co-ordination Working Group said that work will be first “programmed maintenance” carried out on the Shannon for a “significant period of time and silt and vegetation has built up which impacts on the river’s conveyance capacity”.

It’s understood the programme will be targeted in particular at a series of ‘pinch points’ along the river, which locals and lobby groups have long highlighted as impeding the flow of the river.