I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of this motion. In fairness, money is not a problem but trying to get it done is a problem. The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, and I have been involved with Lough Funshinagh for a number of years. I have seen previous Ministers. What had to be done in Lough Funshinagh was a temporary measure to allow the water to be pumped away. Does the Minister of State know what the reason is? The pipes were three quarters down. Environmentalists brought a case to court. The pipes were to go for about half a mile, then onto a river and out into Lough Ree. At one time, the water from Lough Funshinagh used to go out to Lough Ree underground, but that basically blocked up. We are now faced with the situation where scientific studies lasting for a few years are needed to show that the same water that was going out will not damage some bit of a flower on the edge of Lough Ree because it is going out through the river. No matter who it is, even if I was Minister in the morning, they would pull their hair out. I would not have hair with what I am watching with the habitats directive. We can talk here and give out about relief jobs not being done. However, at the end of the day, it is about the habitats directive and that legislation needs to be changed when Ireland has the Presidency of the EU. Go to Rossaveal in Connemara, which is the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish's area. There is machinery standing up because of environmental objections and a court case. Go down south to all the schemes. Go to Lough Funshinagh. There was a great story told in Galway where there was a flood on the road. The council went out to let the water go. It was rung and told that it could not let water in there because it was a special area of conservation. We would rather have a car crash than let water go. We can talk about it here but, at the end of the day, the habitats directive was transposed into law by our now retired President, Michael D. Higgins. We must decide to put people and lives before some of the objections, like in Lough Talt. When Irish Water wanted an extraction licence for Lough Talt, an objection was made because of a snail, even thought the snail had disappeared for over 20 years. We need to amend that legislation. I am not saying the Government will be able to scrap every bit of it. I took part in an overview of it a few years after it. I would have been as well off if I had gone home and counted cattle, to be quite frank about it. I gave my view, and nothing happened. I ask the Government to change that. It is not for Ministers to do. It is going to take the likes of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste when Ireland has the Presidency of the EU for six months. We need to do that. Go to Dublin Port or Dublin Airport and have a look at it. Go to any road job or any flooding job and have a look at it. I will give an example which shocked me one day. In Clonberne in County Galway, a young couple were building a house. A drain down near the back of the house goes into the Sinking river, heads on through Slieve to Dunmore, goes into another river, heads for Galway and goes into the River Clare and then goes into Lough Corrib. It is 40 miles away from Lough Corrib. Does the Minister of State know what the couple had to do? They had to get a screening out. They spent €2,500 to be told, "By the way, this won't do any harm." That is where we have gone as a country because of European regulation. To be honest about it, if I was the Minister or someone else was Minister, we would still be handcuffed and we would be in the courts down the road because of environmental legislation. Until we decide we are going to sort this out, even if it was God almighty, we will have to go through this process for seven, eight or nine years of torture. When all the reports and everything else have been done, we will still be below in the courts for another few years being held up because someone somewhere believes that the little flower is more important than Mary or Johnny's house getting flooded. Until that mentality changes, we are in trouble.

Sentiment score: 0.06