Single agency best for a rapid response to floods

With up to 100,000 acres estimated to have been hit by severe Shannon river flooding since early June in counties Roscommon, Galway, Longford, Westmeath and Offaly, IFA president John Bryan has called for a lead agency to take charge, instead of about six agencies having a say in water levels — including the OPW, Waterways Ireland, the ESB, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Up to 43 authorities are involved in the Shannon river area, said Willie Penrose, TD, 12 years ago, when he launched the Labour Party’s Shannon River Authority Bill — one of very many calls for such a body over the decades, usually prompted by severe flooding.

Now, farmers are more than ever at the receiving end of flooding damage, especially in the Shannon callow regions beside the river, which can normally be farmed in the summer, but are under water this year.