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“Our rivers do need to be cleaned out,” Deputy Healy-Rae said at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht discussing flood relief works. He argued that most rivers had not been dredged in 20 years, and the river Shannon since British rule in the 1800s.
“They’re just blocked because they haven’t been cleaned out, and the reason why is because farmers have been prohibited from going near any river for the last 20 years because they’ll lose their farm payments,” he added.
I believe the farmers would by and large have kept the rivers cleaned and a lot of work done if they were allowed to do so
While acknowledging that he doesn’t “have engineering qualifications”, Deputy Healy-Rae said: “I believe the farmers would by and large have kept the rivers cleaned and a lot of work done if they were allowed to do so.”
The Office of Public Works (OPW), under the successive responsibilities of ministers Seán Canney and Kevin Boxer Moran, agreed a targeted maintenance plan for the Shannon last December and announced last month that works had commenced at Muckinish near Banagher, Co Offaly. “While maintenance on its own cannot protect properties and has no beneficial effect on the extreme flood events witnessed during the winter of 2015 and more recently in Donegal, it is recognised that maintenance can have a positive role to play in mitigating against the effects of less severe flood events and summer flooding,” the OPW stated.
Protected areas
Environmental assessments in the designated areas covering the Shannon have restricted potential works to the month of September in seven areas only. Environmentalists have warned of potential damage to protected areas and species from extensive dredging.
“I’m glad that Sean Canney and Boxer Moran have finally arrived with machines on the scene,” said Deputy Healy-Rae, adding that he would continue to fight for farmers to get involved in river maintenance.
Climate change
At the meeting, the Independent TD also re-stated his view that climate change does not exist. “Storms and all that happened long before there was a combustible engine and I reiterate that in spite of Monday’s storm, going back ages, we’ve had changes and differences in the pattern of the climate that we’ve had back in history,” he said.
Successive reports by a Nobel Prize-winning panel of scientists appointed by all nations in the world have concluded that human greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of climate change.
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