Andrew Carey
GERRY Adams, the Sinn Fein party leader, has called on Government to find a solution to the flooding crisis which has been a “disaster” for those effected.
Following a visit to meet residents of the stricken Springfield area of Clonlara, Mr Adams spoke at the Kings Island Community Centre in St Mary’s Park, Limerick and highlighted what he said were “bad planning decisions” of the past.
Mr Adams said that the granting of certain decisions “ignored local knowledge to build on flood plains and what would have been natural getaway areas for water in marshland and to pour concrete and cement into those locations were bad planning decisions.”
Withholding flood insurance from families “is just not acceptable” he told media adding that “the State doesn’t care and it’s not enough just for the Taoiseach to talk tough that he is going to bring in the insurance companies.
On a tour of the constituency along with local Sinn Fein representatives including Cllrs Maurice Quinlivan and Seighin O’Ceallaigh, Mr Adams “people should have the right to be insured against flood damage” and when asked if planners and the councils should be held accountable and responsible if they make bad decisions, the Sinn Fein leader said that “that maybe something that needs to be looked at in the longer term, but what people need in the short term is solutions and support.
“it’s not just solidarity of visits by politicians – that’s all important for morale, but what people want is results and the most insulting thing would be that some of us would go int these areas for a day or two days or for and hour or for five minutes and then next year the people are flooded again that’s highly insulting.
When asked about the plight of residents in St Mary’s Park who are still waiting for flood defences a year after many homes were destroyed, Mr Adams said “we went and looked at the two or three layers of concrete blocks that were placed on top of the wall, it’s like something a child would footer at. Despite all the rhetoric and all of the promises at the time, nothing has been put in place.”
Mr Adams went on to say that “we would be insulting those communities if we didn’t listen to them. They’re the people who are bringing in the sand bags, they’re the people who have been helping their neighbour’s and have saved homes or have tried to comfort people. People’s nerves are wrecked – people are just absolutely on the edge psychological. They’re emotionally drained and it’s hard to quantify that or to put a value on that but people shouldn’t have to live, in this year of 2016, in conditions like that.”
Mr Adams went on to say that “this Government is now infamous for making promises which it doesn’t keep, then all we can do is keep faith with the local people. I’m back here because I was taken by what happened at the time – I thought the community spirit was amazing and it is only the grace of God that we haven’t had a reoccurrence.”
When asked about the pending general election, Mr Adams said that An Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s “time was up” adding that “this Government should have gone to the people a year ago”.
