I would like to thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I am glad it is the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment who is taking this question, because it is on account of a decision by the Department of the Environment in October that I am raising this matter tonight.
The Fane flows southwards from Lake Muckno, Castleblaney, to the sea at Blackrock, County Louth. The Minister for the Environment made an order on 10 October allowing another local authority to extract water from the lake. We had no objection. We believed our local authority could extract water from the lake, the drainage of the Finn could be carried out and the farmlands of County Monaghan could be drained. The Minister made things difficult by the imposition of this order.
I will give the background to this. The river flows from the lake near Castleblayney which Monaghan County Council, through the European Regional Development Fund, purchased as a leisure centre and amenity area. It was purchased in 1981 and we believed the drainage could take place, the water-logged land in the area could be made usable and by extracting the water lower down the river Dundalk could be facilitated.
There are many tributaries in the mid Monaghan area north of the lake. Dundalk Urban Council sought for a number of years a supply of water from that lake. This lake was a major source of supply for water schemes in County Monaghan. The farmers in the area and the people with fishing rights objected. The Minister decided to set up a judicial inquiry. Before the inquiry was set up Monaghan County Council were able to get the farmers and the people with fishing rights to withdraw their objections.
Monaghan County Council put a water order on that lake, but on 10 October the Minister disregarded Monaghan's rights in relation to a lake in their county. He made a water order to allow Dundalk to extract 8,000,000 gallons of water and he made a compulsory purchase order — I have a copy of it here — on about 700 acres of land in that area. Monaghan County Council engaged architects, Neil Hyde and Partners, who designed a scheme referred to as the Killarney of the north. It was a scheme which would have given great amenities. There would have been a golf course, which they are developing at present, they were reconstructing the castle to incorporate meeting places, and there were going to be water sports, boating, bridges between the islands and so on. However, the Minister has allowed a compulsory purchase order which will destroy the project which Monaghan County Council had commissioned the architects to draw up. He put a compulsory purchase order on the 20 acres which Monaghan had designated as a park with the amenities which I have outlined.
There are 18,842 acres affected by the river Fane; 7,500 of them are flooded. If drainage was carried out there could be increased production on the land. Up until now, the farmers were hoping that this scheme would be proceeded with, because they were unable to avail of the money provided by the western package as there were not adequate funds.
On 19 October the Minister was asked a number of questions regarding the compulsory purchase order, whether there was any other source of supply for Dundalk, and about the damage it would do to the amenity in this area. The farmers in that area provided £30 per acre to a maximum of £500 to fight the case in the courts. They had asked that the Minister would make an order to give back those costs to the farming organisations who had fought the case. The Minister in the course of his reply stated that there were no other sources available. We could not accept this reply, because we believe if they had collected the water downstream and closer to Dundalk it would have meant less piping, it would be closer to the reservoir and would have been equally beneficial as a supply as to take it from the source and have to raise the levels of the lake. The Minister also said there would be no hardship to farmers or damage to amenities. That is not so, there are serious repercussions both to its development as an amenity and to the drainage of farm land. He said that costs had not been applied for. I understand they have been applied for since that date, and I hope that that money will be returned to them.
We have fought for many years to secure funding from the various sources, especially from the Border counties fund and the European Regional Development Fund for drainage, amenities and tourism. We were told by the Minister for Finance on 21 and 22 June when we had a debate on the subject that there was £2.4 million which had not been taken up. Here is a scheme which has been scuttled by a decision of the Minister for the Environment who could have preserved the amenities of that area.
