FLOODING: Gerry Adams wants united political front on floods and consult local knowledge
He said Taoiseach Enda Kenny rejected a Sinn Féin bill for the setting up a single Shannon agency and the Government was then forced to set up a task force.
“While I welcome the task force, it doesn’t have authority; it doesn’t have a legislative basis,” said Mr Adams.
“There needs to be a body with a legislative basis, to manage and to direct all of the shareholders to do the appropriate thing.”
Mr Adams was speaking during a visit to Springfield, Clonlara, in Co Clare, where houses have been flooded and many more marooned and inaccessible, since the first floods more than a month ago. He said more attention had to be paid to people who live close to rivers and who have a great knowledge of the water-flow patterns.
He said: “The one thing I have found, visiting communities: there is a huge amount of local knowledge. I am staggered by the number of people who have lived by the water and rivers for generations and know how it works.
“One man, Joe Quinlivan, who I met today and he can’t have access to his home only by boat. He said it’s like not having your chimney swept — if you don’t sweep your chimney, you’ll end up in trouble.
“For decades, there has been no attempt, sustainable, to manage the river; to keep the river clean; to dredge and do all the necessary work that is required. So I do think the Government has to be held responsible and it’s the job of the opposition to do that. But to deal with the crisis has to be above party polics.”
Mr Adams said: “Some of the difficulties facing people are a result of bad planning decisions, again, which ignored local knowledge to build on flood plains; to build on what would have been natural getaway areas for water on marshland; to pour concrete and cement into those areas.
“The water has to go somewhere. So there are planning decisions, but we have to live with that.”
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