Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am caught for time and have to go, but I want to say that being confident is one thing, but seeing the process on the ground being complied with is another. I do not believe that any public service should be demonised in any way, but I do believe they should be held to account. The lack of process here does not help. I do not believe the private sector is any better in this regard; in fact, I believe it is worse, but it is not subjected to the same scrutiny. To put my comments in context, the private sector has not served us well in Ireland. Fortunately there is a higher standard for our public service. I do not believe that it is correct to say that going private would be better. In my experience, it is not. However, serious process difficulties have been highlighted here.

I was a councillor for a long time and was there when the OPW was doing great work on the ground analysing the flooding situation. The big challenge was the plan to do something about it and to find the money required. Can the witness update us on that?