Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On CFRAM, I am from the great county of Cork. Deputy Eamon Ryan's people were baptised in the River Lee. I was baptised in the Blackwater, metaphorically speaking. We do speak about flood defences and there is very clear evidence of structural works on the Munster Blackwater at Fermoy and Mallow, which are phenomenally successful. For anybody who has any doubts about whether demountable walls work there is incontrovertible proof that they do. Notwithstanding that, the problem for migratory fish and so on, to which Deputy Eamon Ryan has referred, is a slightly different issue, not quite pertinent to this one because it relates to a fish pass in disrepair and is not necessarily in the witnesses' remit. It is important to put that on the record.

There are 118 flood relief schemes and flood relief programmes were always designed with the 100 year flood in mind. I was formerly a mayor of my town and when we went through the process we were told we were designing for the 100 year flood. I fail to understand Mr. Adamson's intervention on the planning, maybe I missed something in the dialogue. Have we now surpassed the 100 year flood mark or benchmark in planning for flooding events? Should we now be using agricultural land to slow down flooding and should we be paying farmers who are on flood plains some sort of compensation and telling them not to build on their land, not to plant or graze and allow for natural drainage schemes to take place? That would be a structural solution to flooding and a more natural solution that is not just engineering but another solution in terms of land use.