Mr. John Sydenham:

I think that captures it. The individual development will always be a problem. Given our demographics, we have a great deal of what we call ribbon development the length and breadth of the country. It is always a challenge to try to protect that. That said, it is equally as emotive for any individual impacted by flooding, whether they are part of a town or living in an isolated bungalow. The key argument is the economic argument. We cannot devote very scarce resources to do an elaborate scheme to protect houses. We have looked at instances where the cost of a remediation would be multiples of the value of the dwelling we are trying to protect. Even though it sounds very heartless, the economic realities come in.

We have looked at a number of measures that can assist individuals affected in such a way. We have individual property protection whereby, depending on the extent of the flood impacting on the dwelling, they can get devices that will protect them in terms of water ingress. Pumping is another measure that can be taken.

Beyond that we have looked at home relocation, which is an extreme option. There are instances where it is not economically viable, prudent or practical to do something with existing dwellings so Government has approved a scheme to facilitate somebody moving to a new location and constructing a new dwelling. That is extreme for somebody who has lived in the community for a protracted period. In other areas where there are small groupings of houses not warranting a full scheme, there are other schemes where we have developed localised individual property protection. A highly sophisticated warning system is needed to give us ample time to put the measures in place. We have piloted a number of schemes and we found that the cost of the warning system sometimes exceeded the cost of the remediation. Some of them can be extremely expensive. There is also the minor works scheme so there is a range of measures. Perhaps, as the Deputy said, our communication could improve so that people knew what was available to them.

The Deputy also asked about Carrick-on-Suir and said there was a perception that we fix the problem in one area only to push it into another downstream. The central aspect of the CFRAM programme is catchments and the interactions within them. It is important that an intervention in one area does not cause a problem elsewhere. People may think this happens but it does not and the schemes are designed specifically to ensure there is no knock-on impact.