I beg to move:—
That the Seanad is of opinion that, in view of the urgent need for the relief of unemployment in, and to prevent the future flooding of, the affected area, the Government should proceed without further delay with the work of draining the River Barrow.
All Irishmen are interested in this matter. It is not necessary to tell Senators that deputation after deputation waited on English Chief Secretaries during their occupation in this country in connection with this matter. They received a favourable reception every time, and occasional offers of help, but for one reason or another the contributions which the British Government promised to give in aid of the work were turned down. At all events, nothing has been done so far to relieve the destitution occasioned in the district by reason of the devastation caused by the flooding of the Barrow. The Barrow is a river about 100 miles in length. It stretches from the Slievebloom Mountains to the ocean. It is 80 miles from its source to St. Mullin's, where it joins the tidal waters. It has been divided by the engineers into two separate areas, one called the upper area, which reaches from its source to Athy, a distance of about 40 miles; and the lower area, which reaches from Athy to St. Mullin's, where it joins the tidal waters. The lower area is not so much affected by the flooding as the upper area. The upper reaches of the Barrow affected by the flooding, I mean the catchment area, covers an area of 408,000 acres, while the lower reaches cover an area of about 300,000 acres. It is in the upper reaches of the river that the flooding takes place.
It was estimated fifty years ago that there were 50,000 acres affected, and now it is calculated that at least 70,000 acres are affected by the flooding. Commission after Commission has sat to consider the question of the flooding of the River Barrow, and plan after plan has been prepared with the idea of relieving the flooding. It has been calculated that ten or twelve thousand pounds have been spent on Commissions and on engineers' plans, and yet nothing practical has been done as far as removing the flooding is concerned. Not a shovelful of sand has been lifted. I ask the Seanad to support this motion for several reasons. One reason is unemployment. In the area from Mountmellick, where I come from, to Athy, I am told that about 1,000 men are on the unemployment list. About £1,000 a week is being paid to these men, who are able and willing and quite anxious to work, if the work were provided for them. When we approached the Minister for Finance on the question, we were told that the question of providing money to do the work was the difficulty; but here we find that £1,000 a week is being paid to men who are able and willing to work—to men who are doing nothing, but who are being made unemployable. There is not one of these men but would be quite anxious to work to save their own homes and the homes of their friends from the encroachments of the floods on the River Barrow. So far, we have been met with all sorts of excuses, but nothing practical has been done.
I have been acting as temporary chairman of the Barrow Drainage Committee. A deputation from that Committee has gone privately into the matter with the Minister for Finance, but the matter has been shelved every time. On the last occasion it was shelved with the proposition that a great firm of German engineers were coming over to Ireland, and, so to speak, were going to drain the Barrow by a stroke of the hand. We were told that that was going to be done by some great German invention discovered in the last war. We think, as the old woman said, that the old plan is the best plan, and we, ordinary people, think that this flooding is not going to be removed by any sort of fairy tales. In my opinion, we will have to depend on ourselves, instead of on the Germans, and I am of opinion that the engineers who have been engaged on this work know more about it than any German engineer could ever know. That has been given as a reason privately for not going on with the work. We are told that the Board of Works is in favour of the drainage of the Barrow. Everybody seems to be in favour of it, but no one seems to make any advance. As regards the finance of the question, we calculate that £400,000 would drain the Barrow— £300,000 the upper part, and £100,000 the lower part. The upper portion is the portion affected by the floods.
The engineers calculate that the floods from the upper reaches will go to the lower part and do an infinite amount of harm. The engineers have made provision against that. All the plans are in Dublin Castle or in the offices of the Board of Works. As far as the finance of the question is concerned, the money that we pay at present for unemployment, if capitalised, would pay 5 per cent. on a million, so that we would lose nothing as a nation financially. If at the present time we started to drain the Barrow and were to go ahead with the work, we could pay the interest on a million for nothing. Then, again, from the local standpoint, it is really a good commercial proposition. There are 408,000 acres in the catchment area, and by levying a rate of 1s. per acre on that area, you would derive a revenue of £20,000 a year. The area that is most seriously affected by the flooding covers about 70,000 acres, and if you were to levy a rate of 10s. per acre on these 70,000 acres, it would bring in about £35,000, so that the actual resources of the nation would not be taxed to any great extent.
The inhabitants in the reaches of the Barrow do not want the Government to take the whole thing in hands. They are quite willing to contribute their share, but what they want the Government to do is to start the work immediately and thus help to relieve the large amount of unemployment in the district. A Committee could be formed that would demand from the inhabitants of this flooded area a reasonable contribution annually towards the payment of sinking fund and interest. Such a payment would not weigh very much on the inhabitants of the benefited area, because their income if the floods are removed will be greatly increased. I am sure the farmers in the area would not object to pay a small tax, if they were assured that when they cut their crops they would be able to save them and bring them home. At present they cut their meadows and save the hay, but perhaps in a day or two the floods rise and carry away all the hay. If this drainage problem were settled it would, I am sure, put from £2 to £3 per annum in the pockets of the farmers by reason of the fact that their crops were saved from all danger by the floods. At present they may spend £1 or £2 in labour in saving the crops, and when the floods come along not only is their farm produce swept away, but they also lose the amount that they have expended on labour.
I appeal to the Seanad to support this motion and to put it forward to the Dáil. I hope that all parties in the Seanad will support it. First of all I call on labour to support it so that work of this kind may help to relieve the unemployment we have in that part of the country. I call on the farmers to support it so as to help their kinsmen living on the Barrow river whose property and crops have been devastated for years by the heavy floods and finally I appeal for patriotic reasons to all parties in the Seanad to support this motion. There are at least 100 square miles of land that we can save by undertaking this work from the ravages of the Barrow and I do not see why we should not do it.
