HC Deb 02 February 1897 vol 45 cc1045-6
MR. J. P. FARRELL

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord lieutenant of Ireland whether complaints have reached him of the flooding of all the lowlands on the banks of the tributary streams which flow into the River Shannon from Rooskey, county Roscommon, to Athlone; whether it is the fact that a large volume of water is kept unnecessarily back by the shutting down of the floodgates at Tarmonbarry and also at Athlone; whether such a course is an absolute necessity for navigation purposes; and whether any steps can be taken to so widen and deepen the River Camlin as to prevent the disastrous floods that continually occur in county Longford?

MR. HANBURY

I am informed that every stream in the Shannon district was flooded, and that the flood was about an ordinary winter flood. The Rooskey and Tarmon sluices were all opened. At Tarmon the sluices were not running full, and the surface of the water above the sluices was at or below the summer level. With a view to protecting the low-lying land along the river between Athlone and Meelick, 27 miles, the Athlone sluices were either not opened or only slightly opened, but Lough Rea (above Athlone) did not rise so as to cause much flooding. The navigation was not in any way affected by the sluices, and was not taken into consideration. No works are in contemplation by the Government on the Camlin River, which has its own Local Drainage Board.