McDermott suggests Lough Lene dam

Expenditure of €50 on a railway sleeper was all that was required to sort out a problem threatening Lough Lene, Cllr Frank McDermott told officials of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad at the March meeting as he reacted with disappointment to their response to his request that the lake be dammed.

Cllr McDermott had asked that the district write to Irish Water and ask that they consider putting a dam on the outlets to the Boyne and Shannon from Lough Lene.

The formal written response stated that this was not a role or decision that would be available to Irish Water to make, as it would require several statutory environmental assessments to be considered and approved in the first instance, with significant costs associated with same.

Cllr McDermott argued that at a recent SPC meeting, councillors were advised that water extraction from Lough Lene was almost at full capacity, and that there was a real danger of over-capacity.

He stated that if anyone looked at the bridge there they would see that one railway sleeper, sitting on top of the railway sleepers that are already in place, would cure the problem.

"And you’re talking about €50."

He said if that was done today, no environmentalist or any other person would have any interest whatsoever because the problem would be cured.

"So I think that we should have another go and see can we do something because if the research that we were shown at the SPC is correct, then give it another year with the growth in Castlepollard, Delvin and Clonmellon, then we are going to be in trouble with Lough Lene – and I don’t want that.

"So: whatever you have to do to progress the issue, start, please.

Toilet upgrade

A further request by Cllr McDermott was that the district consider an upgrade of the toilet facilities at The Cut at Lough Lene.

To that, the response was that the work can be considered when a suitable grant funding source has been identified.