Frustration at flood meeting as calls intensify for single agency

A single agency must be established to manage the River Shannon; however, it must not be at the expense of the positive progress that has already been made.

 That was one clear message emerging from a public meeting held by the Mid Shannon Flood Relief Group in Athlone on Monday night, which was attended by residents of rural communities across Offaly, Westmeath and the Midlands who expressed their rising frustration with the current floods.

The gathering followed an initial emergency meeting held in Esker Schoolhouse near Banagher on Friday, February 28.

Addressing Monday night's meeting, attended by more than 100 people, chairman of the Mid-Shannon Flood Relief Group Michael Silke, whose farm is on the Offaly-Galway border, said people are “living a nightmare and cannot endure it any longer”.

“We were told in 2009 that this was a once in 150-200 years event, and here we are again, the third time in ten and a half years that we’ve had to endure this frightening spectacle – people pumping water out of their houses and huge areas of land flooded.

“We had a meeting close to Banagher town last Friday night and there was a big crowd at it, and the general feeling among the people there was that it's time to start hiring a private contractor to go into the Shannon and start doing what needs to be done.

“There’s no doubt CFRAM [Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management] has been good for urban areas, but the water has gone out to rural areas and there is no protection once you cross that weir wall in Athlone. For communities like Carrickobrien, Clonbonny, Clonmacnoise, Shannon Harbour, Shannonbridge, Banagher, Clonfert, Meelick and Lusmagh, the whole thing has become a frightening reality, and that's why we're here tonight.”

 Mr Silke outlined the group’s three-pronged approach to tackling flooding on the Shannon: firstly, handing over the control of water levels to a dedicated management agency; second, the removal of ‘pinch points’; and third, flooding cutaway bogs in order to supply water to Dublin.

There was broad agreement with the first of these proposals, with the majority of politicians in attendance committing to supporting the establishment of such an agency.

However, others including outgoing Minister with responsibility for flood relief, Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, sounded a more cautionary note and appealed to the committee and incoming TDs to “stick with the plan” currently in place.

“My advice is if you go with a single authority, the good work that has started will stop. You’ll tie yourselves up with red tape. I fought tooth and nail for €1 billion [Flood Risk Management Plan] and I got it; no other government had put €1 into flooding. We were starting from decades of neglect,” he said, with many of those present paying tribute to Minister Moran for his work.

He added that progress is ongoing regarding ‘pinch points’ – areas of the river identified as in need of dredging.

“There’s 22 pinch points on the Shannon below Athlone; 16 are significant. Take out the 16, you drop the Shannon levels by a foot and half.

 “I put all the agencies in a room and we worked out a programme for nine pinch points, and every one of these is done. At the end of last year, I looked at the upper Shannon and there are 44 pinch points to be done,” he said.

However committee member Liam Broderick from Banagher, who offered a presentation on local pinch points, argued that some of the completed works were outside of the main flow of the river and would not solve the continuing flooding problems. There was a large amount of work still to be done, he said.

Mr Silke looked for a commitment from the politicians present to tackle four major pinch points between Athlone and Meelick, resulting in an apparently unanimous show of hands.

He also outlined the committee’s opposition to longstanding plans to pipe water from Parteen Basin to Dublin, proposing instead that the Midlands’ bogs be flooded to supply the water needed.

 “They’re planning to take it at the Parteen Basin, after everybody has been flooded on the way down. Why not take the water from Lough Ree during critical flood periods and flood the cutaway bogs, and utilise that water? We need to ensure the proposal to bring water to Dublin, in its present format, will not go ahead.”

Feelings ran high at Monday’s meeting, with several residents of rural communities along the Shannon sharing their experiences of battling the rising flood water to defend their homes, farms and livelihoods.

The atmosphere became heated when farmer Paddy Towey from Shannon Harbour, who has been out of his home for more than four years due to flooding, clashed with Minister Moran over the Government’s flood relocation scheme.

However Brian Hunt, a member of the Irish National Flood Forum, stepped in saying: “We have to get away from this blame game and work together to beat an enemy that’s bigger than us all put together,” he said.