On today's Order Paper, I had Question No. 52 dealing with coast protection at River Row, Moville, County Donegal. I want to say at the outset that I was prepared to elicit the information I required by way of Parliamentary Question but due to the unsatisfactory reply of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Gibbons, I was left with no alternative but to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
For the benefit of the House, let me go back over this problem of coast protection at River Row, Moville. River Row is an area where 14 families live, approximately 50 to 60 people. For the past ten years, agitation has been going on by the people there to have something done urgently. Before I came into this House, Deputy Cunningham, whom one could describe as the local Deputy for that part of Donegal, made promises that this work would be commenced at a very early date. One of the first problems presented to me by the people of Moville—to be more accurate by the Fine Gael group in that area—was River Row. They went to the utmost trouble to spotlight the hardship which the people there had to tolerate and forced me to have the matter raised in the House by way of Parliamentary Question. We were told at that time, in 1962, that the Coast Protection Act was being prepared and that when that Act was introduced by the late Donogh O'Malley, who was then Parliamentary Secretary, all our ills would be cured.
The people in Moville were not satisfied that that was soon enough and two former members of the Fine Gael Party representing the Buncrana electoral area—Mr. McEleney and Mr. Deeny—had motions tabled in Donegal County Council asking the Office of Public Works to have repairs carried out there at the earliest possible date. The general trend of debate at county council level by members of the Fianna Fáil Party was: "Do not waste ratepayers' money on having this repaired under the Local Authorities (Works) Act"—or by any other means which were available to Donegal County Council—"but wait until the Coast Protection Act is introduced and this will deal with this terrible problem." That was in 1962 and in 1963 the Bill was introduced, and from there on all sorts of pressure groups were being formed. No doubt the people who live here and who support the Government Party were making representations to their public representatives. I can assure the House that the people who support the Fine Gael Party were in constant touch with me about this problem.
I want to tell the Parliamentary Secretary that I am not particularly interested in who or what Party gets credit for carrying out repairs to River Row. I want to tell the public through whatever medium I can that it is time certain Fianna Fáil Deputies and county councillors in Donegal stopped playing Mickey Mouse politics looking for half a dozen votes here and there, trying to frustrate efforts by me and other people to have something done here. When Deputy Cunningham is approached in this matter, he is dealing with the Office of Public Works through the Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy Gibbons, and if any mention of this coast protection work is made by any Member other than a Fianna Fáil representative it is being attended to, so much so that when I addressed a question to the Parliamentary Secretary he informed me that he was telling me what he told Deputy Cunningham some time ago. I am not interested in what the Parliamentary Secretary told Deputy Cunningham. All I am interested in is when the Parliamentary Secretary will carry out repairs to River Row, Moville.
You may have seen, a Cheann Comhairle, in the local papers in Donegal over the past week or ten days that damages have been sustained at Fahan on the other side of the peninsula, damages to such a major extent that a deputation was sent to Donegal County Council meeting on Monday to ask them to provide engineers, if the Office of Public Works were not prepared to do so, to provide expert advice on how they could carry out repairs to Lisfannon. It may be out of order for me to mention Lisfannon. I only use this argument to bring to the Parliamentary Secretary's mind that on numerous occasions in this House by way of Parliamentary Question and indeed on the Vote for the Office of Public Works, I have warned the Parliamentary Secretary that unless repairs were carried out, erosion would take place and the cost would be much greater than what it would have been if it were attended to there and then. That is exactly what happened at Lisfannon last week when we had high winds blowing in a certain direction and four holes of Lisfannon golf course were washed away. Indeed the golf house itself is in danger and the main artery between Buncrana and Derry is in danger of being eroded. The same thing can happen at River Row, Moville. The only difference is that there are lives at stake at River Row. There are 14 families, approximately 50 to 60 people, living there.
I remember on one occasion when a springtide flooded that area to a depth of two to three feet I had an urgent call from the people concerned to come down and examine it and see what could be done. I went down on a wet, windy evening and all I could do was look on and sympathise with the people concerned. These are poor people. These are people who cannot run to the bank manager when their homes are destroyed. They cannot run to the nearest furniture supplier and order furniture, even if they were offered hire purchase arrangements. These are people who are earning a hard living and need every penny they earn to support their families and to rear them in any type of comfort. They cannot afford the danger or the terrors of being flooded now and then by tidal waves. Indeed a member of the Fianna Fáil Party, the deputy chairman of the county council, who lives in Moville said at the county meeting on Monday that he did not wish to be against the deputation from Lisfannon but he wanted to impress on the county council that the need to have something done to River Row was much greater than anything Lisfannon could claim. I do not wish to push any open doors. I only want to spotlight that a resolution was passed at the Moville Development Association a fortnight ago, a copy of which was sent to the Parliamentary Secretary. No satisfactory answer has been received from his office since, to my knowledge. A resolution was passed on numerous occasions by Donegal County Council that something be done.
When the Bill was introduced, we were told all we needed was legislation, that the money was there and would be spent. In 1965, £30,000 was voted for coast protection. Before the Bill was introduced in the House, that figure was reduced to £5,000. It was cut by £25,000 because of the credit squeeze but during that time even the Parliamentary Secretary refused to admit there was a credit squeeze. We knew, and everyone else admitted, without being told, that there was a credit squeeze. It seems from what has been said in the debate on the Third and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution, that the Government are more concerned about spending money on the referendum.
