Farmers will take their own action to alleviate flooding in south Galway if the Office of Public Works does not take a more hands-on approach, the Fine Gael TD for Galway West, Mr Padraig McCormack, has predicted.
The £2.5 million allocated in the Budget would "easily" solve all the problems in the area if the five remedial schemes identified in the south Galway area were acted on immediately, Mr McCormack said.
One such initiative took place in the Kiltiernan area, north of Gort, during the floods of January and February 1995, when farmers could wait no longer, he said.
Mr Michael John Murphy, one of the farmers involved, described yesterday how the community of Kiltiernan was forced to hire a contractor without official approval after the national school and surrounding fields were flooded in 1990.
"We had four months of it, from February to May, and we swore we never wanted it to happen again," Mr Murphy said.
When the water levels rose again in 1995, a group in the community identified a route to the sea, and a contractor was hired to open the drains.
To date this week, the scheme appears to be working. "It is the first time we have had a chance to test it," Mr Murphy said. However, the school playground was covered in water yesterday, "so it may be early days yet". The cost at £240,000 over a five-mile route, from turlough to turlough, was "small" in comparison to the £2 million paid out after 1995 in compensation, Mr McCormack said.
"The funding was eventually secured through that compensation scheme, but the OPW wanted to wash its hands of it and there were all sorts of objections on environmental grounds. Yet the wildlife had been driven out of the turloughs when the levels rose. "Surely it is far more environmentally friendly to ensure the turloughs do not swell beyond their natural winter level."
After heavy overnight rain, flooding was still in evidence in many parts of Galway city and county yesterday, with roads from Tuam to Ballinasloe to Gort badly affected.
The Irish Farmers Association maintains that 5,000 acres are flooded in the south county area - almost matching the 6,000 acres swamped during the 1994/1995 floods that affected Gort and surrounding townlands.
Under a relocation scheme, several houses were demolished and owners moved to higher ground; there was criticism of Galway County Council for having given planning approval for their construction in the first place.
Earlier this week, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Noel Treacy, visited the area and said that the £2.5 million programme to tackle flooding in south Galway would be initiated next year.
However, it may be autumn 2000 before the work begins, as there must be a design and tendering scheme run by the Office of Public Works.
The £2.5 million allocated in the Budget is designed to tackle five critical areas, Mr Treacy explained, as he visited parts of his Galway East constituency to see at first hand the extent of the damage inflicted by the floods.
More than 200 families were affected by floods in 1995 in Gort-Ardrahan, and the cost of the flooding then was estimated at £10 million.
Seven of the most affected families were paid a total of £300,000 under a relocation scheme, and humanitarian aid was arranged from a European Commission Fund.
