New legislation will address Shannon Callows

POWER needs to be wrested from the ESB as a matter of urgency in relation to their control of water levels along the lakes of the Shannon, according to a Galway Minister of State and a local farming representative.

Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte and long-time flood-relief campaigner from Meelick, Michael Silke, told the Farming Tribune that the ESB’s control of lake water levels along the river was causing hardship for people living in flood hit areas.

“The legislation dealing with the control of water levels along the Shannon lakes dates back to 1934 in the era of the Ardnacrusha hydro-electric project.

“But things have changed since. Now, only one per cent of our electricity comes from Ardnacrusha and I accept that it is way past time this legislation was updated,” said the Minister of State at the Dept. of Children, Disability and Equality.

She pledged that this issue would be tackled in the Government’s Autumn programme of legislation with the specific aim of setting up an overall Shannon River authority which would take control of all flooding issues relating to the waterway.

On Thursday of last week (July 29), Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), Patrick O’Donovan, and Minister of State at the Dept. of Agriculture, Senator Pippa Hackett, were brought on a boat trip of the Shannon to look at flood pinch points.

However, according to Michael Silke, he was disappointed that this boat trip did not travel through the backwater areas of the river between Banagher and Meelick, where the pinch points actually were located.

“They went on the navigation route which did not take them into the backwaters of the channel where the pinch points are located, and we were certainly disappointed with that.

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