Mr. Maurice Buckley:

All of the works can be invasive. Sometimes they have to be invasive because of the nature of the measures needed to afford protection. All of the works are done with as much environmental planning and sensitivity to environmental concerns as possible. We have worked closely with Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, and the fisheries to work around spawning seasons. We conduct environmental assessments and look after the ecology to the greatest possible extent. We also look at other measures to seek to solve the problem differently. There are schemes such as the Clonakilty scheme, which I mentioned already, where water will be stored in flood plains so that when there is a flooding event, instead of deepening channels and so on, water will be allowed to run into areas where it will not cause damage or impact the environment. It will then run off when that becomes possible. There are limits to how much can be achieved with these natural measures, including forestation and so forth. We look at them and they are part of long-term planning but experience nationally and internationally shows that there are limits and one cannot get away from the need to engage in fairly aggressive physical interventions sometimes. These are unfortunate and disruptive because they interfere with riverways and so on but they are done in as sensitive a way as possible and we manage environmental issues very carefully.