Taoiseach admits Shannon flooding problem is ‘huge’
“The problem is huge,” he says. He is acutely aware of it, and has asked the Minister of State at the Office of Public Works to address it. The problem is the river Shannon, and many others, like the Taoiseach, are waiting with bated breath for a solution.
They stood helplessly by last December, while the Shannon flooding caused incalculable damage to homes, businesses and farms.
Even last month, farmers suffered again when heavy rainfall left fields submerged along the Shannon and one of its tributaries, the Suck – exacerbating a severe livestock fodder crisis.
At least the Taoiseach knows it’s a problem. Summing up the Shannon dilemma, he said the river drops only a number of feet from Athlone to the northern end of Lough Derg. “When one considers the amount of water coming down that type of terrain, the surrounding area becomes almost like a saucer.”
He recently recounted how a walk along the Shannon banks and callows during the summer reveals houses uninhabited for years, some no longer habitable.
“We must try to pull together in a coherent manner the various interests involved. We must try to see what is possible. The view of some people on draining the Shannon is a little simplistic and does not do justice to the complexity of the issues and interests involved.”
