Bill creating single authority to manage the River Shannon "dead in the water"

The Government has this week confirmed to an Offaly TD that its proposed bill to create a single authority for managing the River Shannon is "no longer" a priority.

The River Shannon Management Body Bill was previously included on the Government's priority list for drafting in light of calls to establish a single authority to manage Ireland's longest river.

However, Independent Offaly TD Carol Nolan this month submitted a Dáil question requesting confirmation that the bill had been dropped from the Government's list of priority legislation.

The written response from Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, Jack Chambers, duly confirmed that the bill was "no longer on the priority legislative programme" for drafting.

The Minister's response went on to say: "I am working closely with the Shannon Flood Risk State Agency Coordination Working Group to progress existing planned actions and to identify further possible solutions to mitigate flood risk on the River Shannon. I also intend to further engage with other key stakeholders.

The Minister said he would "continue to work to progress existing measures, and to identify further measures, to mitigate flood risk" on the River Shannon.

He added that he had "not ruled out legislation as a means to progress this important matter" but no further details were given.

The response was criticised by Deputy Nolan, who said it had been clear to her for some time that the bill to establish a single Shannon authority was going nowhere.

"I warned in September 2024 that this Bill was very likely dead in the legislative water and that, with a general election looming, it would never see the light of day. Today the Government has finally admitted I was right all along," Deputy Nolan said in a statement yesterday (Wednesday).

"Farmers and landowners along the Shannon in Offaly and the Midlands have been strung along for years while they continue to pay the real financial cost for repeated flooding."

She pointed out that, in February 2024, the then Minister of State at the OPW, Patrick O’Donovan had told her that a draft of the bill would be brought to cabinet by April of that year. By September 2024, Minister Paschal Donohoe maintained that the bill had been "prioritised" for drafting that autumn.

Deputy Nolan said that she had repeatedly warned that these promises were hollow, and that "the complexity excuse" was simply a cover for inaction.

"I was told drafting was complex, that consultations were ongoing, that the Attorney General’s advice was needed. Yet here we are in 2026, four years after the Bill was first ‘prioritised’, and the Government has simply taken it off the list.

"No draft. No debate. No legislation. Just more working groups and more reviews," she stated.

"The Government’s decision to drop this Bill shows exactly where Offaly and midlands flood victims sit on their list of priorities; absolutely nowhere.

"I am calling on the Minister to immediately publish any existing draft heads of the bill, release the Attorney General’s advice, and commit to real, tangible flood mitigation measures for the Shannon catchment without further delay.

"We have had enough of the reviews and working groups. The people of Offaly and the Midlands have waited long enough.

"The bill may be dead, but the flooding crisis is very much alive, and the Government now has a duty to act," Deputy Nolan concluded.