asked the Minister for Finance if he will arrange for engineers from his Department to carry out an examination with the local authority engineers as to the cause of the continuous expansion of flooding of Tacumshane lake, County Wexford, and the immediate and most expeditious steps to be taken to remove the cause of such flooding.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Wexford Flooding.
17.
I have recently received a letter from the Wexford County Council about a flooding at Tacumshane lake and I am arranging for an Office of Public Works engineer to discuss the matter with the county engineer in order to ascertain precisely what the county council propose.
18.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will have an examination carried out to ascertain the cause of the flooding of 13 houses in the Riverchapel area, County Wexford, with a view to draining and deepening the river, if such is necessary.
The problem in this area is the flooding of houses and is not suitable for treatment by way of a separate scheme under the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, which is primarily concerned with the improvement of land.
Do I understand the Parliamentary Secretary's Office is not responsible for dealing with this?
The primary responsibility of the Office of Public Works under the 1945 Act is the relief of flooding on agricultural land.
Therefore the Minister will do something about it?
It is a problem of the flooding of houses the Deputy is concerned with.
No. This is a river which is flooding and, as a result, the houses are being flooded. The local authority say it is not their concern. If it is not their concern, can the Parliamentary Secretary tell me whose concern it is?
I can only say the major function of the Office of Public Works in the matter of arterial drainage is the relief of flooding on agricultural land. This is not primarily a question of that kind. This is a question of the flooding of houses.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary further help me in telling me who is responsible for it? It seems it is the bad luck of these people that they should be flooded out for the rest of their lives.
I have told the Deputy the extent to which we are responsible in the Office of Public Works.
In a case where there is flooding of both houses and land, can the Parliamentary Secretary say where the responsibility lies?
This question deals with the flooding of houses.
The important thing is the relief of flooding on agricultural land.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary agree that, if money were made available under the Local Authorities (Works) Act, this flooding could be alleviated?
That is a question for a different Department altogether.
No, the Office of Public Works administers that.
The same question was asked of the Minister for Local Government last week and he said he could do nothing about it either.
Am I correct in saying that coast erosion is also the responsibility of the Office of Public Works and that this scheme may come under that heading?
That is a separate question.
This is not a question of coast erosion. I do not think the Deputy's Party are able to make up their minds whether this is a question of flooding of agricultural land or coast erosion.
The Parliamentary Secretary's predecessor said it could be coast erosion. It has never been defined what is coast erosion and what is not.
Does the Deputy's Party know which it is?
I suggest the Parliamentary Secretary should get the plan Deputy O'Donnell adopted when the water main was outside in the street. He said the reason for rejecting the site for houses was that there was no water available.
There is too much here. We have water now but no houses.