Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is very frustrating. I want, on my own behalf, to welcome our guests and thank them for their extremely comprehensive report. I know the work they have done on it. We have had many arguments, even at Cork County Council level, that local knowledge means local experts. Our guests are the local experts. I have listened to the questions and debates here today and it sometimes feels as if the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The front of somebody's head is talking to the back of someone else's.

Many figures have been bandied around, between the €4.5 million and an estimated €200 million. Mental health is my other sphere where preventative and proactive measures are better than panic stations and reactive measures.

I am interested in the water boom our guests are talking about. I am well aware that there must be 12, 13 or 14 sub-aqua clubs. It is not only Fermoy, it is the River Blackwater down as far as the Youghal estuary and there are many different businesses including sports, tourism and fishing. I am well aware of the rowing clubs and so on and so forth.

A number of stakeholders have been mentioned and there is an amount of work that must be done. I am nervous because once something is gone, it is gone. This boom, if it can be put in, will bring the water level back up, will let everything continue as normal on one side of the river, at least temporarily, and will give the opportunity for everything to work the way it should. Cork County Council, Inland Fisheries Ireland, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Office of Public Works and the construction companies will all have to be brought in. A solution is required. That is what our guests are giving, albeit a temporary one. Others are coming up with long-term solutions that will cost €4 million or €4.5 million. I will be making a proposal to the committee members-----