Murphy Calls
for Long Term Shannon Drainage and Flood Defence Plan and Affordable Flood
Insurance.
Fianna
Fail General Election Candidate for Roscommon Galway Councillor Eugene Murphy
has called for a Comprehensive long Term Shannon Drainage and Flood Defence
plan to be put in place for the Shannon Region and should encompass tributary
rivers throughout the region.
The
uncertainty and Economic disruption and general heartache caused to households,
farmers and local businesses cannot be allowed to continue, particularly as
many people are having difficulty in getting flood Insurance both domestically
and commercially.
Up
to the 1990’s the office of Public works had a river drainage programme with
the Lung River around Ballaghaderreen having been drained and dredged.
Eugene
Murphy went on to say “Now is the time for a strategic 30 year plan of long
term drainage/dredging programme combined with priority construction of Flood
Defences in the most vulnerable areas”.
A
serious drainage programme will have immediate benefits in tackling flooding in
this region quite simply it would be increasing the depth of the Rivers meaning
they can hold a greater volume of water.
“I
have discussed this with a number of people, particularly people across Galway
and Roscommon that have had their lives blighted by flooding and the fear that
when every storm hits that it will bring another round of floods. The common
response I get is the rivers need to be brought back to their old depth they
have been silting up for years”.
Today
Fianna Fail Launched its Rural Manifesto and in combination with the commitment
to infrastructural development and Rural Job creation I am calling for a
comprehensive plan of flood defences as an essential piece of Rural
infrastructure this is not as Fine Gael have suggested a case of either decent
Rural Broadband or Flood Defences but are actually consistent with each other.
What point is there in building new important infrastructure if it’s at risk of
flooding? Now is the time to start
building comprehensive flood defences and as to the people who will no doubt
ask how will this be paid for, I make the following points, flooding impacts
massively negatively on the economy and I therefore confidently state the costs
of flooding would outstrip flood defence costs. The second point I would make
is the construction of these flood defences will create work and jobs in an
area that badly needs them, which in turn through the circular flow of Economic
activity create more Tax revenues for the government and savings on social
welfare payments.
Moving
back to the topic of a long term drainage and dredging programme it makes
common sense that if rivers are not dredged they will silt up becoming more
shallow and wider and more prone to flooding. There needs to be a coherent
programme of ongoing dredging and drainage of the Shannon and tributary rivers
now there have been objections to this with some people in the Government
saying “Europe will not allow us to dredge the Shannon” To this I say it is absolute
non-sense, Europe is a concept born out of benefiting its citizens so having
people driven from their homes, farms and businesses is not what Europe is
about to me and on principle I believe this is putting people first.
Environmental
concerns have been raised about a drainage programme well I would argue two
points on this firstly how much damage has been done to wildlife with all the
flooding how many habitats have been destroyed. Secondly Technology has moved
on massively a drainage programme could be done sensitively and in the long
term benefit the local environment. Additionally a long term drainage programme
would bring Economic benefits both by giving certainty that flooding on this
scale would never happen again (certainty being a key component in encouraging
investment) and will create much needed jobs particularly in Roscommon and East
Galway.
Turning
to the issue of flood insurance for households, farms and Commercial premises.
Councillor
Eugene Murphy stated “Many farmers, home owners and business people cannot get
Flood insurance at any Price”
Economically
this is disastrous for the region with no insurance cover, businesses and
farmers become less likely to invest in an area so less jobs, without Insurance
householders become reticent about spending on their own homes so less work for
local tradesmen and less sales for local DIY and furniture stores so Ironically
less VAT and other tax revenue for Government an economically vicious
circle.
What
we need on this is action and not gimmicks by the Government parties and the
insurance industry with talking shop summits but no more insurance policies
issued.
Some
Government Ministers have said an insurance Levy to subsidise insurance in
flood hit areas would not be fair to the people. Yet we have had to pay levies
on our insurance policies to bail out the old PMPA since 1983 (yes we are still
paying this) and we are paying another levy to cover the collapse of Quinn
Insurance. So why can’t we have an Insurance Bail out for the people?
The
UK recently launched a National Flood insurance scheme were the regular
insurance firm offers insurance to people and businesses in flood prone areas
but where the element of the premium that relates to Flood insurance by say 25%
of the national average that risk is then reinsured with a national Insurance
company (something we already have ‘the Insurance fund of Ireland) and the
customer is provided with the certainty that insurance provides removing a
large element of fear that pervades the affected areas.
In
short Councillor Eugene Murphy is proposing a three pronged plan to tackle the
flooding issues.
Firstly
an accelerated programme of flood defence construction.
Secondly
a long term programme (at least thirty years) of river dredging ad drainage.
Thirdly
a national Insurance scheme that will ensure all households, businesses and
farms can get flood insurance.
