asked the Minister for Finance if he will consider allocating the necessary amount of money to have a drainage scheme carried out on the Islands river, Ballymoe, County Galway.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Galway Drainage.
19.
The Islands river could be dealt with by the Commissioners of Public Works only as part of a comprehensive drainage scheme under the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, for the Suck catchment as a whole. As the drainage of the Suck is tied up with the Shannon flood problem it has been decided that a scheme for the Suck must await developments in relation to the main Shannon.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary satisfied with the progress made on the survey of the Shannon?
No. This whole question of the survey of the Shannon is tied up——
There must be a general election coming up when they are talking about draining the Shannon.
——not only with the desire to proceed with it but it is a question of getting suitable engineers to do the survey within the allocation of moneys available for drainage purposes.
I hope he is more successful than he was on his visit to Donegal.
Question No. 20.
A Cheann Comhairle, may I ask a supplementary?
Yes.
Thank you. Is it not sheer hypocrisy to talk about draining the Shannon? Have they not been promising it for the last ten years?
Deputies
Twenty years; 30 years.
The Deputy's question has nothing to do with the Shannon.
If I may say so, it is all tied up with the drainage of the Shannon. Some schemes are held up because of the fact that the Shannon has not been surveyed. In relation to Deputy Tully's remark I examined the proposals that were put up by the late Deputy Donogh O'Malley. They were genuine proposals and they fell through simply because the necessary technical staff was not available and could not be recruited at that time.
The Parliamentary Secretary would want to go back 20 years.
At present the whole arterial drainage question is being surveyed and considered by myself and my chief advisers in relation to the money available at the moment and in relation to the many major catchments that will be coming up for groundwork in the near future. This whole matter of arterial drainage is a national matter and it has been under extensive review by me for some months now.
I never heard the Parliamentary Secretary or a Fianna Fáil Deputy refer to the drainage of the Shannon or to any of its tributaries except when there is a general election coming up. The Parliamentary Secretary will be dead and gone before any of that drainage is done.
I should like to contradict the Deputy. I have referred consistently to the Shannon since I became Parliamentary Secretary.
The Parliamentary Secretary has not surveyed it.
The Parliamentary Secretary said he is having a survey carried out which will result in the disruption of the priority list which has been prepared over the years. Are the schemes he is talking about now going on at the end of that long list where it will not be a question of what year they will be done but of what century?
I thought Deputy Tully was here around 1945 when this was drawn up and the Shannon was left as a separate question entirely outside the priority list.
If you could suck as well as you can blow they would be drained long ago.
May I ask if the survey of the Suck has been completed?
Yes, the survey of the Suck has been completed and an examination was also carried out as to whether the Suck could be drained into one of the lakes on the Shannon as distinct from into the Shannon itself but it was found that the likelihood was that that would only worsen the flooding downstream and would not warrant the risk.
Question No. 20.
When do you intend to drain the Suck?
I will allow no further questions.