The meeting was held in accordance with Government Guidelines in relation to social/physical distancing

Cathaoirleach Donal Kilduff welcomed everyone to the special meeting of Athlone MD to update members on Lough Funshinagh. He called on Annmarie Johnston, SEE, Roads Section, to give the presentation on the Malachy Walsh and Partners Flood Analysis report and Ecological Review of Flood Protection Options for Lough Funshinagh and Lough Cup. (Presentation slides attached)

Cllr. Donal Kilduff thanked Annmarie Johnston for giving the presentation.  Cllr Kilduff said he is sixteen months elected as a public representative and is sixteen months coming in here to Áras an Chontae listening to and debating the issue of Lough Funshinagh and that he is completely fed up with it. There are six elected public representatives in the Athlone Municipal Area and we all agree that essential works are necessary at Lough Funshinagh to avoid mass displacement. This is not populism; he is certain based on current water levels that if we get a wet winter there will be at least five houses flooded this winter. Who is going to take responsibility for it? 

Cllr Kilduff: ‘We are being told here today nothing will be done because the cost benefit ratio is not where it needs to be to warrant action - but we all agreed when the cost benefit analysis was first published that it was flawed because the OPW cost template attributed absurdly low costs against agricultural land and private dwellings. When we collectively requested the OPW to attend our municipal meeting to engage constructively on the issue we were told that they do not have the resources to attend municipal meetings. Is this a representative democracy or a centrally controlled bureaucratic dictatorship? Why is a bureaucrat in Leinster and a body with such limited resources deciding the fate of a relatively simple infrastructure project in Roscommon when we have pubic officials in Roscommon County Council with top class multi-disciplinary competencies and an elected body capable of evaluating and deciding on such a project locally.

Ireland is a relatively young democracy; we are doing well in general on the big issues but all too often we drop the ball on the small stuff. We should look to international best practice in older more established democracies. Countries such as Denmark have much stronger local government and real autonomy at local level where locally elected representatives in consultation with local and regional public officials make decisions on matters such as Lough Funshinagh. Our system of electing national politicians and then judging their success or failure as public representatives based on their ability to extract funding for their area from central government is not working for rural Ireland and Roscommon in particular. It has created severe regional inequality. If Lough Funshinagh was located closer to the Pale I would have no doubt that the outcome would be different’.

Cllr Kilduff finished by saying that a properly funded model of local government is needed, where resources are distributed at local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.20