Danny Healy-Rae urges minister to clear rivers to stop floods
Danny Healy-Rae spoke about river clearance and flood prevention in Kerry, urging the minister to prioritise clearing rivers and urgent local works. He cited past funding for the Fless River and argued that rules since 2002 preventing farmers from clearing rivers have worsened flooding.
Past river works and funding
He recalled 2018 funding to clear the Fless River and said that earlier clearances had reduced flood depths compared with older floods.
Policy changes and farming restrictions
He said that up until 2002 farmers had been able to clear rivers, but that subsequent rules stopped them from doing so and threatened their foreign payments, which he blamed for deteriorating river conditions.
Flood impacts and river silt
He described how silt, sand, gravel and other material wash down from the hills and accumulate in rivers, causing them to spill over banks onto roads and into houses if they are not cleared.
Courthouse Bridge and Khmer flooding
He pointed to the Courthouse Bridge and a pipe crossing the eye of the bridge as a local bottleneck that has been flooding the town of Khmer for many years, and he appealed for that obstruction to be moved quickly while other works can wait.
Preferred solution and ministerial appeal
He said there are ideas about holding back water and creating floodplains but urged the minister to “get stuck into them” and insisted that the straightforward solution is to clear the rivers.
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First of all, Minister, I want to thank you for being a very hands-on minister and for coming to Kerry again recently. And indeed, I go back to 2018 when he gave us funding for to clear the Fless River. And that time and for 10 years before that, we were constantly being told that it would make no difference to clear the river. That would only make 10 millimetres of a difference. Now, the highest flood that has been there in the last 80 years didn't come with any 8 feet in level with the road. And it used to be 3 feet on top of the road before that. They wanted to raise the road and do everything else. But the facts are, like Matthew says, if we don't clean the river, that's what was always happening up until 2002. Until some genius decided that farmers couldn't touch the river anymore or clean it out or do what they had been doing for centuries. And if they did, they'd lose their foreign payments. So that's why the thing is getting worse and worse. Many of our rivers are still in a desperate need of being cleaned. And you see, like Matthew says, everything comes down from the hills, the silt, the sand, the gravel and every other kind of muck. And it lands inside the river. And if the river isn't cleaned out, where is it going to come? You know, it'll spill out over the banks, onto roads, into houses. And that's the trouble that we're having. Minister, you see, you know, last visit to Kerry, you see the Courthouse Bridge. And you see the pipe that was crossing the eye of the bridge. That's what's flooding the town of Khmer and have been doing for many years. And I'm appealing to you to see, again, is there any quick way of moving that. And whatever other work that needs to be done can wait. But this will alleviate the serious problem that's in Khmer at the present time. There are other ideas in other towns and places about holding back the water and creating floodplains. I say to you, Minister, get yourself stuck into them and tell them that the easy way of setting it out is to clear the rivers and no other two ways about it. Thank you, Deputy.
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