asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware that the Camlin River, Longford, is flooding thousands of acres of land; and if he has any plans to have the river cleaned or to compensate the farmers concerned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cleaning of Camlin (Longford) River.
27.
The Commissioners of Public Works could deal with the Camlin river only by way of a scheme under the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, for the Longford catchment as a whole. I cannot say at this stage when the Longford catchment will be reached in the drainage programme. There is no scheme for compensating farmers affected by flooding.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that Longford is mostly a county of small farmers and that there are well over a thousand acres of land flooded? Many of those 50 or 60 small farmers are people who have to pay rates of £5 per acre Poor Law Valuation for poor return. Is the Minister aware that last year, when a weir was washed away in this particular river, the flooding went down by as much as four feet and over 300 to 400 acres of land was relieved of flooding, but that a fortnight or three weeks later the floods returned again? Would the Parliamentary Secretary admit that, if this weir was lowered, it would be possible to do something to relieve the hardships of the flooding on those farmers?
I am aware the farmers are suffering a loss in this area, as they are in practically every other low-lying area in the country. I have told the Deputy that the Longford river is a matter of priority. I think the Deputy also knows that the drainage of this river is bound up with the outfall into the Shannon.
What about the drainage programme for the Shannon?
We discussed that situation yesterday. I should like to say to Deputy L'Estrange that if spot treatment of flooding of this kind were carried out it would have the inevitable effect of removing floods from one area and aggravating the flooding situation in another.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary not aware that the floods went down by as much as four feet when the weir was washed away, and 500 to 600 acres of land was relieved?
In one area?
Yes.
If the water went out of one area it must have gone into some other area.
I thought the Shannon was to be drained 20 years ago.
Spot treatment would not be permitted because it would merely remove the difficulty from one place to another with no effective value at all.
I will have no further Supplementary Questions from Deputy L'Estrange. Question No. 28.
A Cheann Comhairle, I raised this matter originally and Deputy L'Estrange is speaking on second-hand information. I want to clear a point.
There can be no discussion on this. The Deputy may put a question.
Rip Van Winkle has been asleep for ten years——
The form of the question is this: Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that we raised this matter at local level at a meeting of the local authority and that we were told that the Camlin River is heavily backwatered with the Shannon and is bound up with the Shannon flooding problem? A survey was carried out in 1965 and we were told that it is being acted on. Is that true or not?
In the meantime the unfortunate farmers of Longford must suffer.
Deputy L'Estrange's sympathy for the farmers of Longford cannot be sincere. In the last three months, in which the rainfall has been practically doubled, every area of the country has been affected. I doubt if the Fine Gael Party are suggesting that special treatment should be given to one area to the neglect of every other area.
Deputy L'Estrange would not know the names of the chief rivers in Longford.
If Rip Van Winkle on that side of the House was awake for the last ten years something would have been done about it.
Deputy L'Estrange is more interested in calling names than in the drainage of the Longford rivers.