Kevin Boxer Moran: Emergency scheme for farmers needed following Shannon flooding
The outgoing Minister of State for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief, Kevin Boxer Moran has said there needs to be an emergency scheme for farmers following recent flooding along the river Shannon.
The former Independent TD for Westmeath-Longford, who narrowly lost his seat in the recent election, told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that in his lifetime he had never seen the Shannon at the levels it reached at the weekend.
More than eight inches of rain had fallen in the past few weeks, he said. “That is an enormous amount of rainfall.”
Sunday night had been a very difficult night in the Athlone area, he added with gulleys at saturation point and people further threatened by rising levels of water and high winds.
Mr Moran defended the outgoing government’s efforts in relation to flooding.
“Look where we came from. There have been 98 schemes.”
He said that work on a weir outside Carrick-on-Shannon would go ahead as promised under a €10m scheme, but there was criticism in the area at the weekend that the work had not already been carried out which led to extensive flooding.
Governments in the past had not done anything, he said, while the outgoing government had allocated €1bn in flooding relief and relocation schemes.
However, there was a problem as some people did not want to move away. “They want to stay where they are.”
A status yellow rainfall warning was in place for Connacht, Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Longford, Louth, Wicklow, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath, Clare, Limerick and Tipperary last night.
The warning is due to end at 8am.
Met Éireann said the rain "will lead to accumulations of between 20 to 25mm, with higher totals possible in upland areas."
They added that "as the ground is saturated at the moment and river levels are elevated the combined effect of rainfall and snow melt may lead to some localised surface and river flooding."
