Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No more than in Midleton, the Office of Public works and local authorities design the scheme according to the worst recorded event. That is why Arup is using data from Storm Babet in Midleton to make sure we design to the worst recent event. There is no point in not taking the metrics into account from the worst recent event, proceeding with something substandard and, in 18 months, when there is another event, ending up with the town under 4 ft of water and everybody saying it was a total waste of money. While Deputy Tóibín might be of the opinion it is more important to just drive ahead, that is not what we will do. In Kilkenny, it will have been no different. The most recent available peak data in Kilkenny city concerning the one-in-100-year event will have been looked at.

The scheme was designed to withstand that.