Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

As I have limited time, I will move to my second question. The Minister of State has spoken about flooding caused by rain in 2009, which is a key issue. There is no debate about that. However, there is a debate about the best and most cost-effective way of dealing with it. I again refer to Professor Phillip O'Kane of the department of civil engineering in UCC whose paper submitted to that conference last year stated, "When flood-protection has priority over hydropower, when floods are likely, a flood-attenuation of ~70% is possible, with complete protection of Cork during a repetition of the November 2009 river flood without the OPW scheme." Would the Minister of State care to comment on that?