Mr. Tony Smyth:

Under the Planning and Development Acts, when we bring forward a flood relief scheme, there is a process under the Arterial Drainage Acts for a statutory consultation period and a process for dealing with the comments people make to us relating to the proposals we are making for a flood relief scheme. Due to the fact that this has been there since the implementation of the first Arterial Drainage Act in 1945, arterial drainage schemes and flood relief schemes are exempt development under the Planning and Development Acts. Normally, when we are bringing that forward, we bring it through except where we overlap at the coastal end. I am not conscious that we have had to do a coastal one. Carrick-on-Suir was a tidal scheme. It was the one where we had to apply for a foreshore licence as well. If that was exempt so that the process for us was streamlined from bringing forward a flood relief scheme by way of exemption in the same way as it is exempt in planning, it would certainly streamline the process for bringing forward flood defence schemes in coastal towns.