Mr. Maurice Buckley:

I am looking at Mountmellick here, which has a €3 million to €3.5 million project budget. The public information day took place in November 2019. There was a terrible flood. I was there myself on the morning it flooded and there was a lot of damage done. I feel the Chairman's frustration, and it is a frustration many Deputies feel, and the public. There were two Dáil debates last week on this topic and it was very evident to us that the length of time it is taking to do the environmental work necessary to get approval for planning is causing a lot of concern. It does take time. It takes time in other countries as well. We have to start early. What we are doing in the OPW is bringing forward as many schemes as possible to go in parallel so that we can prevent that.