Mr. John McCarthy:

I am not sure I pronounced it correctly. It is a piece of infrastructure such as the Thames barrage in London which is deployed when there is a risk of flooding. It can come in many forms. The OPW takes the lead on such infrastructure. For example, its project in Cork, which is the subject of much media coverage, is an attempt to protect the centre of the city from flooding of the kind it has experienced in the past. Flood prevention measures range from infrastructure as significant as the Thames barrier to micro-measures such as something that slots into the doorframe of a building or house if it is prone to flooding. I was making the point that the issue of flood prevention and flood management must be addressed in the context of climate change and that barrages are one of the pieces of infrastructure that could be deployed as part of the response to flooding.