Drainage is of special significance in the Border region. Before we joined the EEC there was not much hope of drainage work being carried out. In south Monaghan the River Fane, which flows southwards to Dundalk, was flooding between 5,000 and 6,000 acres. The Blackwater, which flows into Lough Neagh, affects 5,900 acres. The Erne catchment is the fourth largest catchment after the Shannon, the Bann and the Barrow and it covers 5.2 per cent of the land of the entire island. It affects the five Border counties in that 75 per cent of County Cavan is covered by the Erne catchment, Donegal 2 per cent, Leitrim 30 per cent, Monaghan 40 per cent, Longford 15 per cent, as well as County Fermanagh. In Cavan 57 per cent of the land is rated as wet drumlin soil in need of drainage. Of 13,933 holdings in County Cavan, 9,673 have a valuation of £20 or less. Of 10,655 holdings in County Monaghan, 7,565 have valuations of £20 or less. All these rivers straddle the Border and many of them form part of the Border for long distances. In the North they carry out drainage works on a tributary basis but here we deal with the complete catchment.
I pay tribute to the OPW for the work they carried out following our entry to the EEC when funds were made available. They carried out a land valuation study and an engineering study of the Blackwater and they are now ready to begin work with the intention of completing drainage within five years. This is the first time the OPW have operated at that pace and I hope the pace will be continued.
We also have in the area the Ballymore-Ballyconnell canal and we saw an opportunity to link the Shannon and the Erne, the finest waterways in Europe.
The Minister has talked about problems which have arisen but I do not accept this argument. I was involved in initiating drainage works in mid-Ulster from 1973. I have been a member of every committee and I know that the problems are not as the Minister says. We were told there were problems on the inter-lough channel at the sluice gates at Portora but I know they can be overcome. A former Stormont Minister told me that they had examined it and that the generating station could be by-passed. The Minister is only using it as an excuse.
When Fianna Fáil were returned to power in 1977 one of the first things the then Taoiseach did was to set up a steering committee of civil servants from both sides of the Border. We worked with elected representatives, North and South, and with officials of the local authorities. The steering committee and the monitoring group continued their work and made great progress. Land valuation and engineering surveys were carried out. On 19 December 1980 we met the then Taoiseach, Deputy Haughey, but following that we ran into the problem of the Northern troubles and the H blocks and progress was retarded.
The Minister referred last night to certain savings on the cross-Border project which came to light during the past few weeks following consultations with the Northern Ireland authorities. In other words, they saved money there in order to keep men employed in some other area. The money for the Blackwater was allocated through Directive 79-197 and the EEC were to reimburse 50 per cent of the expenditure. The money is now being diverted to drainage works in the west covered by Directive 78-628. I hold that the Government cannot do this, that it is irresponsible and illegal. That money was made available for cross-Border drainage development. It is positive proof of the insincerity of the Government.
On 20 February 1974 I put down questions to the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy FitzGerald, regarding money for arterial drainage. The Minister replied:
However, the general tendency of expenditure from the fund will be to create industrial employment or infrastructures related closely to industrial development so that expenditure on arterial drainage will remain a matter solely for national administration.
That was the attitude during the Coalition years and it is still the attitude.
In March 1975 I put down questions to the then Minister for Finance and he replied that there was no guarantee that money would be provided. It is typical of the Government that they are trying to siphon off this money. I hope the EEC are aware of it.
I have always been very concerned about drainage problems and I wrote to Antonio Giolitti, the European Commissioner responsible for the Regional Fund. He replied to me on 11 April 1983 as follows:
Thank you for your letter of 9 March 1983 concerning development of the border regions of Ireland and, in particular, the Erne Catchment Area.
I must admit to being a little perturbed at the implication that the Erne Catchment Study, which was jointly commissioned and financed by the Irish and British Governments and the Commission and which, as you point out, raised high hopes in the area, had not given rise to concrete action.
That answers it all. By the Minister's own admission he is siphoning off this money and diverting it to another area. I say this cannot be done and I do not intend that the Government should be allowed to do it.