I have been granted leave to move the adjournment of the Dáil for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the widespread, acute and unprecedented distress and devastation caused by flooding in Kilkenny City, Thomastown and other areas, requiring the immediate provision of finance and supplies. In doing so, I want to assure the Minister and the House that I am actuated by no sense of partisanship and I am not moved in any way by Party motives. I am endeavouring to put before the House and the Minister the views, as given to me, of citizens of all classes and of all shades of political opinion.
I should like, first of all, to address myself to the picture which I saw in Kilkenny and Thomastown. In Kilkenny City three out of four city parishes were affected by the flooding which took place on the morning of the 13th of this month and continued right down to St. Patrick's Day. In that city John's Street, John's Quay, Irishtown, Watergate, Blackmills and the vicinity of the Black Abbey were inundated in most places to a depth of from eight to ten feet. Some 191 dwellinghouses had to be evacuated. A big number of these dwelling-houses are definitely dangerous to human life and their structure at present is such that there is grave danger of a number of them falling. Many of them have been shattered and split in two and, in those which are structurally sound, the condition of things is so appalling that it will take many weeks to clean up the débris and to dry out the houses. All classes are affected—shopkeepers, traders, owners of workshops, artisans, middle-class people, ordinary workers and, of course, the poor.
I do not want to weary the House with details, but I must say that the conditions which I saw appalled me and would appal any person who visited the various places affected by the inundation. I saw stretches of strong walls, eight to 10 feet high, for perhaps a distance of 30 yards, swept by the raging torrent as if it were mere cardboard or paper.
I saw dwelling-houses completely gutted of all family possessions, personal belongings, furniture, kitchen utensils—everything was gone. I saw the small workshops of artisans who depend for their livelihood on their daily labour in their homes. I saw their equipment swept away by the flood. There was nothing left to those people, not even the clothes they wore the night before. Many of them to-day are standing in their neighbours' shoes and wearing their neighbours' clothes. Their own clothes were swept away by the avalanche which hit them around midnight.
Many of the shops in John's Street, in Irishtown and in Watergate have been completely gutted. Everything in the shops, counters, shelving, stores, stocks of all kinds, have been swept away. Ricks of hay and straw were lifted up and swept through the gates. Many of the gates were swept off their hinges and piers and walls were knocked down. It is a scene of desolation in these areas. All the business records of the traders are gone; all the ration cards are gone, all the coupons are gone, and all the supplies are gone. The situation is such that these people are unable to carry on under the ordinary system of control which prevails. They have to depend upon the goodwill and the charity of their colleagues in the various trades to give them the supplies necessary to meet the demands made upon them by distressed people.
All red tape had to go by the board. These people have had to help one another as best they could in the appalling circumstances in which they found themselves. I saw small printing works smashed up. The Black and Tans in their most evil moments could never have created the havoc that was caused in some of these printing works. The principal bakery in Irishtown is out of commission, and will be for many days. The gentleman who owns that bakery has to keep his customers supplied with bread which he has to buy from colleagues in the trade. He has to pay the weekly wages of his workers who are idle, to the tune of £60 a week. The local brewery has been completely smashed. All machinery in the brewery is knocked about to such an extent that it is impossible for anybody but an expert to say whether or not that machinery can be put in motion again. Some of the mills are affected by the water. The stocks of corn, oats and wheat in them are affected by the water and it will take a long time to dry these stocks again.
The trouble in Kilkenny has been caused not so much by the Nore as by a small river called the Breagha. The Breagha comes in two forks down behind Parliament Street, under Parliament Street and under the brewery and apparently the bridges on the Breagha are so low and old fashioned that any abnormal rise of water cannot be taken under them. Immediately there is a rise in the Breagha the bridge eyes fill up and the water must get out somewhere. On this occasion the water got over the bridges and flooded the area all round. The walls were broken down everywhere. They acted as barriers for a time and the water banked up against them. Then the walls gave way and a raging torrent came right down through the back yards and the gardens at Blackmills and in the Black Abbey vicinity. It came right through the back doors of dwelling-houses and traders' shops in Irishtown, Lower Parliament Street and Watergate as far as Green Street and swept everything before it.
I have seen shops completely gutted out as far as stock, shelving, counters and all that are concerned. There is nothing left in the barbers' shops. In the barbers' shops there is not even a basin or a mirror left. There is an appalling situation in Kilkenny City at the moment.
In Thomastown, the Mall, Market Street and Mill Street were completely inundated. I have seen the water marks in the dwelling-houses and shops right up to the ceiling of the first floor and, in some cases, it passed the ceiling of the first floor and was going on to the second floor. I was not able in the time at my disposal to get a completely accurate picture of the situation in Thomastown. I saw a number of houses and I saw a number of shops. I got an intelligent citizen to calculate for me the number of houses affected. He got as far as 74 and he could not think of the names of the rest, but he assured me it was well over 100. The pavements in front of these shops and houses was torn up as if they had been blitzed by an atomic bomb. The counters, the shelving, the presses, the furniture and the stock were left in an indescribable condition of chaos. Most of it went in the flood because when this emergency arose inside the houses men in their nakedness had to go, at the risk of their lives, with hatchets to force the doors open in order to get this tidal flood out and when that happened everything in these houses below the first floor went with the flood.
Some of the people affected are exNational Army men, recently discharged. Some of them had married and spent their gratuities in setting up a house and home and in the purchase of furniture, clothing and bedding and all those other essentials that go to make up the home life. Everything that these men had is gone. They have not even to-day the clothes they were wearing the previous day. They are depending on the charity of their neighbours for the loan of suits. The position is utterly appalling. I cannot for the life of me see how these men— particularly the smaller artisan who had his business in his own home and the worker who resided in his own home—are ever going to rehabilitate themselves in life without some assistance from the State. The amount of damage done in loss of property to the poor, to the worker and to the middle-class runs into several thousands. I cannot at the moment give any idea of the amount to the House because I had not time to go into the matter in detail and it is impossible at the present time to estimate the damage that has been done to personal property, to dwelling-houses and shops, to traders' stocks and to household furniture. All that has gone. Small traders who have lived in the City of Kilkenny and in Thomastown with small capital are completely without their capital to-day. Their capital, which was sunk in stock, has gone. I do not know how these people are going to attempt to make a livelihood in either Thomastown or Kilkenny unless the State comes to their assistance. I certainly cannot see how the worker and the artisan are going to carry on unless the State is prepared to help them to rehabilitate themselves in some way. Briefly, that is the position. I do not want to overdraw the picture but the Minister for Education personally visited these areas and he saw everything that I saw.
In the Dunmore, Jenkinstown, Three-castles and Ardloo area it is impossible to get any information at the present time. Nobody can say what the plight of the farmers in that area is. I have been informed that some of the places there are under eight feet of water and people are living in the top storeys of their houses. What the position is as regards their stock, implements and land generally I cannot say and nobody will be able to say until somebody can get into them or they can come out to us. These farms were inundated last year on the 12th August. The people there are experiencing their sixth flood. On the drainage motion I gave particulars of the losses which these men incurred last year and I asked the Minister for Agriculture to come to the rescue in some way by giving some relief this year. I asked for a special investigation of their conditions with a view to giving them some relief under the Tillage Order this year. A chief inspector was sent down and made an investigation. He was very sympathetic. But I was informed yesterday morning by a young man who got out of the Dunmore area that he has got his orders to till the same quota as last year. These men will be lucky if they can till at all this year but they will till again at the risk of once more losing their crops. Most of them lost all or the greater part of their crops last year. I want to appeal again to the Minister for Agriculture to reinvestigate the problem now as it exists after the past week's inundation.
The immediate problem is a serious one. It is the problem of getting food, fuel, cement and commercial timber to these areas. All books and records, writing cards and coupons are gone and the Minister for Industry and Commerce can only act on the basis that certain quotas have been fixed. These quotas must be rushed immediately to Kilkenny and to Thomastown. An emergency committee has been set up in Kilkenny and a similar committee has been set up in Thomastown. These two committees are investigating the problem of supplies as well as the problem of distress. They will report with a complete list—if they have not already done so—of the traders' position and of what is needed now to get them going and to keep them going. Men in the Thomastown area assured me that for four days they had no food. There was no bread in the area because they depended on a local bakery which is now out of commission.
The owner of this bakery is a young man of initiative and he has succeeded in getting bread from Kilkenny by means of a lorry. The bakery in Thomastown is urgently in need of coal to dry out the ovens. If the baker there can get a couple of loads of coal from Castlecomer forthwith he will, in a couple of days, be able to start baking again. To that extent relief would be afforded to the people in Thomastown and to a certain degree to the people in Kilkenny, because the people in Thomastown are depending on Kilkenny for their bread at the moment.
Commercial timber is required for many things. I have told you that the scenes inside these houses are scenes of utter and complete devastation. Partitions, flooring — everything has gone, everything is torn up and tré-na-chéile. Timber is needed to put these homes into a habitable condition so that the people can return to them. Cement is urgently needed in Thomastown because the people are terrified to go back to their homes until cement protecting walls are built at the backs of their houses. The walls have gone and the people have assured me that they will not go back until they are rebuilt. No woman or child could be expected to go back in present circumstances.
The Nore is still very high and is still in raging flood. It has subsided from the streets, but it is still well over the banks. Thomastown people have evacuated their homes and are depending on the charity of their neighbours for shelter. Many of them are depending on the charity of their neighbours for food. Practically all of them are depending on the charity of their neighbours for the clothes they wear to-day. Now, we cannot stay too long with our neighbours or our friends. Little situations arise which become irksome and people begin to feel that it is time the visitor left. That situation will arise in Thomastown—as it has arisen in every household at some stage—and unless immediate steps are taken by the local authority, by the health authorities and by the State to make these homes immediately habitable, then these people will have to be evacuated elsewhere. In Kilkenny we have been successful in getting the military barracks to help us with the evacuation problem. The central hospital has also been placed at our disposal.
A number of these people will never go back, particularly in Kilkenny because they have been so terrified by their experience they have made up their minds never to return. Others who left their homes are endeavouring to clean them up and to dry them out so that they can go back as quickly as possible. They go out from the evacuation centres daily to do that job. Many of them are so disgusted with the size of the job and so disgusted with the repeated inundations they have had to suffer there that they will not go back. They are sick and tired of the whole thing.
They have made up their minds that here and now the matter must be set right. They say:—
"A crisis has struck us. It is the gravest crisis that ever struck us. It is a visitation from Providence, but we are going to use this visitation from Providence to ensure that the State and the local authority will come to our rescue and will put us beyond the reach of these floods in future."
You cannot blame these people for taking that point of view. You must sympathise with them when you remember that the women and children had to be taken from the upper stories of the houses at the dead of night in Thomastown and were in grave danger of being drowned were it not for the bravery and skilful management of the men manning these cots. These people's nerves are so shattered from that experience that they are not going to risk it again. They have definitely made up their minds on that. That situation has got to be met but it is beyond the control of local funds. It is too vast a problem for the local authority or for local charity. Surely to goodness, in this Christian age, people should not be placed in the position that they are dependent on the charity of their neighbours to rehabilitate them in their daily lives? Much, nevertheless, is being done by way of charity and His Lordship the Bishop of Ossory has set the lead in giving a subscription of £100. I say that, even if we get £20,000 in that way it cannot accomplish very much in alleviating the position of the people affected in Thomastown and Kilkenny.
You have there a housing problem that has got to be dealt with at once. Flooded homes have got to be put into temporary shape so that the people can go back to their homes. Many of the houses in Thomastown are in a very poor structural condition. I have seen cracks in the foundations and in the walls and the people are terrified that the houses will collapse on them, particularly in Mill Street. I doubt if the people will risk going back to these houses, and homes will have to be found for them somewhere. Whatever homes are there can be made secure by cement and timber and that job will have to be taken in hands at once. It is not a job that can be carried out by the ordinary routine local administration, and it is such an urgent job that the Government must come to the aid of these people.
The health problem is a very serious one. The sewers are choked as a result of the flooding and many of the houses will not be free of water for months. Many houses will have to depend on the Nore getting back to a normal level. It will be only then that the damp in these houses will seep out. There is ground damp affecting the floors for a distance of from six to 12 feet which cannot seep out for many months. Traders have had their cellars flooded and without pumping apparatus, it will be impossible to get the water out of these cellars for three or four months. All their stock is meanwhile lying in the cellars.
I was disappointed to-night listening to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance speaking on the drainage motion—gravely disappointed. I never heard such a futile speech in my life. Faced with the problem we have to face in Kilkenny and having put the picture of Kilkenny before him on the 12th of the month, two hours before the floods rose, all he could tell me to-day was that he cannot envisage the time when it will be possible to undertake a survey of the Nore. As I asked him to-day, are we in Kilkenny to wait until there is a holocaust of human life to shake the inertia from which he suffers into some form of action? He told us that the policy was enshrined in the Act of 1945, and that they would not be stampeded——
