I move:
That Dáil Éireann is of opinion that it is essential in the national interest that immediate action be taken to prevent a recurrence of flooding throughout the country and calls for a much more active and urgent implementation of the Arterial Drainage Acts.
This motion was put down by Deputy Seán Collins and myself because, being Deputies who represent rural constituencies—like other Deputies representing rural constituencies—we appreciate that the drainage problem in this country is one of the gravest problems facing any Government and that it requires immediate and active and continuous attention. It is surprising to learn that we have still in this country 1,500,000 acres of land which is subject to flooding. We have still 1,500,000 acres of land which is lost to its owners and lost to the country from the point of view of production and the yielding of wealth.
I put down this motion because I believe that the question of drainage, particularly arterial drainage, has not received the attention that it should have received. That belief was based on my knowledge of the blatant neglect of this problem evidenced by the previous Administration. I do not intend to waste the time of the House in discussing what the previous Government did or failed to do while they were in office but it is right to say that, whatever useful work they may have done in other spheres or whatever plans or schemes they may have had in mind, they gave no outward sign of concern for the drainage problem. It is true that the Arterial Drainage Act was passed in 1945, with the support and assistance, I think, of all political Parties, but it was not put into operation, so far as the people could see, until June, 1948.
During the years following 1945 the country suffered very considerably from flooding, particularly in the winter of 1946, with resultant hardship, damage, and injury to the agricultural industry. It is not possible under any extensive scheme of drainage to deal with abnormal flooding but it is possible to pursue a scheme of arterial drainage more actively than has been done in the past. I want to impress on the Parliamentary Secretary—and I know I am speaking to a man who is concerned about this problem and aware of the need for action—that in the last 26 years very little has been done to reclaim what I might describe as floodable land. Some progress was made, particularly in the years prior to 1932, but in the last 16 years very little has been done. The problem has now become part and parcel of the drive for greater production in agriculture and in other spheres of our economic life. We can only get that production if we use every acre of land and that is possible only by proper drainage and reclamation.
I do not believe that the powers at present available to the Government are sufficient for dealing with this problem. Under the 1945 Act, the old drainage boards and drainage districts were abolished and their particular powers and functions transferred to the county councils. Power was given under the Act for arterial drainage in catchment areas of particular rivers. That Act is now seeing its first application in the drainage of the River Brosna in my constituency, but one is forced to the conclusion that the drainage problem cannot be dealt with exclusively by arterial drainage in a catchment area. There are problems in each county and in each constituency which are too small for the arterial drainage programme, so small that their place in the programme would mean that they would be attended to in, perhaps, ten or 12 years. Yet these particular problems or difficulties may be of such magnitude as to be outside the scope of any special employment scheme. They are too small for one and too big for the other. If the powers of the Government remain as they are at present, problems such as these will not be attended to until they are dealt with under the arterial drainage programme.
I do not believe that any Government that is satisfied with a situation like that—as the previous Government was —is a Government which is serious about tackling the drainage problem. I welcome the assurances given in the last week or so and in this House last night by the Minister for Local Government and the Minister for Industry and Commerce that arrangements will be made to tackle what I would call the in-between drainage problem. I am not concerned as to how that is done but I am concerned to see that it is done.
I welcome the proposal that in each county council area provision will be made for the draining and maintenance of rivers and waterways by the county council engineer at the expense of the Central Fund. Apart altogether from the employment that such a proposal will give, it will mean material improvement of rural areas that have been flooded in recent winters as a result of badly maintained and neglected rivers and waterways.
If I were to conclude without mentioning the pet problem in my constituency of Knockbarron, I could scarcely go back to my constituents. In one particular area in my constituency near Kinnity there is a local drainage problem because a particular river has become completely choked and has changed its course to run along a public road, flooding the land of some seven or eight farmers, depriving the people of the locality of a public road and causing considerable hardship and damage. That particular river, known as the Camcor, at Knockbarron, will be reached on the arterial drainage programme, I understand, in a period of some ten or 12 years. It has been flooding the lands of the people of Knockbarron and the surrounding district for the past four years. I do not know what was done before, but I have raised the question of getting some work done with the county council, who stated: "It is no concern of ours. There is no drainage district surrounding this particular river and it is not vested in us." I have raised it with the special employment scheme office and they, of course, very properly stated that the work involved is too great to be undertaken by them. I have raised it with the Land Commission, who also have declined responsibility. I have raised it in this House with the Minister for Local Government and pointed out to him that, as a result of the flooding, a road has ceased to be usable. Again I was told that it was no concern of his Department.
I am certain that there are many similar drainage problems and I just instance that as a case where, by reason of lack of unified responsibility, lack of powers and, to use a Civil Service phrase, lack of functions, a problem will not be attended to. I am glad that now, apparently, powers which were lacking in the past are going to be taken by the Government. I hope that when these powers are taken problems such as the one I have mentioned in Knockbarron and others in areas in my constituency which I could mention, will receive the immediate attention of the Parliamentary Secretary or whatever officer of the Government will be carrying out this programme. I emphasise to the Parliamentary Secretary that this problem needs active and continuous attention. It would be a serious crime if, after the experience of the winter of 1946, we were to have in any part of this country again flooding of such a sustained nature extending over a period of three or four weeks by reason of the neglect of drainage in the past. It would be a serious thing if, after that experience, a repetition should occur next winter or any coming winter. I know that the Parliamentary Secretary is aware of this problem and I trust that when these new powers have been taken the problem will be followed up and dealt with extensively.
The need for drainage is not localised in any part of the country. In Kerry they have their own particular problem, and in Cork, in the West, and in the Midlands the problem is acute and damage, hardship and injury have been caused in the past. I hope that the problem will now be one of prime concern to this Government. It was one of the matters which had its place in the ten-point programme upon which this Government was formed and I hope that in the coming six or eight months we shall see real progress made towards the solving of our local drainage problems. Drainage is a problem which needs immediate action and I hope that at the end of this debate or during it we shall hear from the Parliamentary Secretary his plan and policy for the coming 12 months and that we shall see in our constituencies practical evidence that that policy and plan are being carried out.