Long Term Shannon Drainage and Flood Defence Plan and Affordable Flood Insurance.

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.