IFA threaten to oppose next phase of Atlantic Corridor

SOUTH Galway farmers have warned they will oppose the next phase of the Atlantic Road Corridor to link Gort and Tuam unless the National Roads Authority carries out “the kind of scientific analysis required in that area”.

The corridor will eventually link Waterford in the South-East to Letterkenny in the North-West by dual carriageway. Work on the next stage of the road from Gort to Tuam is due to begin early next year but according to Galway man and national chairman of the Irish Farmers’ Association Flood Alleviation Team, Michael Silke, the NRA must take cognisance of an underground system of caverns which drains large areas of East Galway.
Mr Silke with other IFA members met with Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey when he was in South Galway on Friday, to officially open the Gort to Crusheen bypass, which forms part of the Atlantic Corridor.
“The NRA has not done the kind of scientific analysis that is required in that area. We are also saying to them that they need to properly address where the water is going to go from the roadways that they are going to construct,” Mr Silke told The Clare Champion.
He described the meeting as cordial, saying the Minister had agreed to organise a meeting between local landowners, the NRA, the OPW and Galway County Council.
“Hopefully we will have all these bodies in the one room to see if we can get progress on this issue. We are not against the road, we want to see it built but we want people’s livelihoods and lives taken into account,” he said, adding that the IFA made its point and “now the Minister has to deliver on his promise”.
“There is no question that there will be huge opposition to the building of this tract of road unless the issue of flooding is fundamentally addressed.
“The key issue we discussed with him [the Minister] on Friday was the next tract of roadway running between Gort and Athenry and its drainage where there is a cavern system underground draining large parts of East Galway. The proposal is to run a motorway over that cavern system. We are worried that, already, there is serious flooding there at the moment with a considerable number of houses flooded in the immediate area of the proposed road and we would be worried that any tampering with that underground system will have an adverse affect with regard to flooding. There is no question at all about that,” Mr Silke continued.
It is almost exactly a year since flooding in South Galway forced many people from their homes and left large areas of agricultural land water-logged. The majority of farmers in the area are involved in suckler farming with others involved in dairying.
“Virtually every farm in South Galway, especially around Kiltartan, Ardrahan and Gort is seriously flooded. There are 10 to 12 houses in these areas that have flooded over the last few years. If things aren’t done properly at this stage, we could have as many again flooded in the coming years and no one will take responsibility,” Mr Silke stated.
“In Kiltartan, a number of people have not gone back into their houses yet. The farmers have carried out a lot of reseeding of their pastures. The floods destroy the pasture and you have to plough it and reseed it. The flood hasn’t come back yet to the area but the waters are rising at an alarming rate,” he continued.
“Some have gotten compensation others have not but those who have got compensation can’t get insurance cover going forward, so if there is an event like this again, they will get nothing that is why we need to get something sorted to deal with the flooding issue,” he commented.
Mr Silke argued farmland is still unprotected and that “the Government’s only policy seems to be to take the water from urban areas and pump it out into rural areas. What they are doing is just shoving the problem down to other areas.”