RECENTLY I’ve spent quite a bit of time travelling in my boat on the Shannon and its tributary, the Suck. The pleasure of travelling our inland waterways in summer is added to by the fact that the water lilies are in flower.

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.

THE ESB stopped releasing water from the Ardnacrusha power station and Parteen dam last night to help ease the threat of flooding to hundreds of homes on the Limerick city side of the power station.