I do not blame the Parliamentary Secretary for the rainfall at all. It so happened that on that occasion I was returning home from Dáil Éireann and I had to make several detours because the roads were flooded all over the place. I have travelled on the roads of Ireland for many years because of my business activities. I often took a truck from my home village of Coolegrane, near Foxford, arriving in Dublin at eight o'clock in the morning; but never in my life did I see anything like the floods in the Moy valley area on that occasion.
I know something about the history of this scheme. The Parliamentary Secretary can put his mind at ease immediately because I am not going to find fault with his engineering staff or himself, his gangers or his workers. My main reason for raising this matter on the Adjournment is in the hope that it will help the Parliamentary Secretary to realise that queer things can happen once in a while and that, perhaps, in consultation with his engineering staff, he may be able to learn a little bit from this debate.
The late Deputy Donnellan was Parliamentary Secretary for a period of years. Following his term of office the late Deputy Beegan took over. Deputy Gibbons, for whom I have the greatest respect, took over at a particular stage. I listened from time to time to Deputies in this House stressing the importance of arterial drainage in their parts of the country — the drainage of the Boyne, the drainage of some river down near Headford in County Galway and various other rivers. Let the Parliamentary Secretary learn this lesson from the River Moy drainage scheme. He knows as well as I know, because I am sure he checked with his advisers yesterday and today, that it is not just a matter of opening up the river to the side drains, to let in more lakes and streams, and everything will be all right. Many years ago I thought that if we could have the Moy drained everything would be all right in my part of the country. But I have land along the Moy River and I have made hay there. I have watched the rise and falls of that river for as long as I can remember.
Let me say that the work of technicians and engineers is one thing, but the Man above can upset an awful lot of calculations. Let me say further that when I was going out to Mass with my wife and children the storm was frightening. The most frightening thing I ever saw was the River Moy flowing down rapidly towards the two bridges in Ballina. The cathedral was in between. If the river had failed to go through the bridges the cathedral would have been flooded in five or ten minutes and the houses in Molloy Terrace would have been swept away. Many homes in the town of Ballina were flooded that night because of the operations connected with the River Moy scheme which every engineer and foreman and ganger and everybody else, including myself, thought was doing a great service for the people of the area. The net result of the scheme was to make the river come roaring down in such a way as to have caused tremendous damage. If there had been snow on the surrounding mountains, as could easily happen, and if the bridges were swept away, hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage would have been done. Lives could have been lost.
We do not know whether such events may happen in the future. I know that if the Parliamentary Secretary consults the engineering staff, all of whom are men of repute, they will say that such a thing could never happen again but how do we know? I personally saw the bridge at Ballylaghan under 18 inches or two feet of water and I saw many other areas also flooded. I do not want to score any points over the Parliamentary Secretary or anybody else but the lesson should be learned that in doing an arterial drainage job it is possible that great damage can be done even though the job is intended to benefit many people. Crops have been lost, homes damaged. People had to be evacuated. Ambulances came to the rescue. If in the future you have severe rainfalls coinciding with snow on the mountains great damage could be caused.
I want to warn the Parliamentary Secretary that my neighbours in Cloongee, Twomore, Straide, Meelick and Knockmore and in many other areas are, as small farmers, out of business; all their crops are lost. The original intention was to drain the Moy so that these people could make a living. I do not blame the Parliamentary Secretary for what has happened but I would ask him to come to Mayo and see things for himself so that he would realise that many of these small farmers and many of the workers in Ballina and people living along the Moy valley have lost so much that it will be impossible for them to get back on their feet unless the Parliamentary Secretary does something towards providing compensation for them.
Thousands of tons of silt have been carried downstream and the Parliamentary Secretary must realise that will create a serious problem for shipping in Ballina harbour in future. The force of the flood cut out the river banks and the silt was carried under the bridges and stacked up. The Parliamentary Secretary may feel that he can go ahead with drainage schemes in other parts of the country but the most important thing at present for the arterial drainage section of his Department is to go back and try to relieve the problem created as a result of this very heavy flooding in recent times.
No doubt many people will send in bills for damage to property. Fortunately, so far as I know, there was no loss of life. Ambulances and a fire brigade helped to evacuate the people and if the Parliamentary Secretary thinks I am exaggerating he can check the facts with Mayo County Council. I saw these things happening. This is the second occasion on which I have raised a matter on the Adjournment in my 10 years, approximately, in the House. I am not doing it for the sake of publicity or to score a point over the Parliamentary Secretary for whom I have the greatest respect nor over the engineers concerned with the Moy drainage scheme nor over anybody else. My main reason for raising the matter is to try to ensure that it will be a lesson to the Parliamentary Secretary, to the engineering staff and to all concerned and that they will realise that very serious damage can occur if they do not take into account that very heavy rainfall can occur now and then and, in addition, you can have heavy snowfalls with serious consequences resulting for the people in the areas where arterial drainage work is proceeding. I ask the Parliamentary Secretary to call together his staff to discuss this matter and, above all, to see that provision is made to compensate those who have suffered very seriously in this case.