Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----a little bit of political grandstanding on the misery of people who are undoubtedly petrified of what may happen over the next four or five days. If the Opposition wants to engage in positive proposals, we need to address the bad planning which located buildings and properties in areas which are no longer appropriate. We need to review that. The climate of the earth is changing and part of that has been, as the Deputy said and as I agree, more difficult conditions in terms of rain, floods and storms in certain parts of Ireland. In terms of the ongoing discussions in Paris, we have a number of challenges. In terms of making progress on this, the €430 million allocated by the Government is a significant amount of money. Deputy Fitzmaurice is suggesting that simple dredging of river beds would address most of the issues. While the Deputy may be right in some cases, I doubt seriously that he is right in all cases. People who are involved in tourism and fishing might not support his view that the rivers of Ireland should simply be gouged out. Deputy Fitzmaurice is making some valuable proposals but he is also making proposals which might have serious unintended consequences for farming and tourism.

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