Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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From the correspondence I am getting, they are not really interested because once the water is released it has to go into a culvert. I think it is the OPW that is claiming that further downstream it will get into Castlemartyr and that could cause more problems there. I have met representatives of Cork County Council privately on this and discussed it all. They were immensely honest with me. However, there are barriers between the OPW, Cork County Council and Inland Fisheries Ireland. There is friction and it is not progressing. It may not be the best solution for the residents here but it is a quick win that we want. I was at a meeting for other areas in east Cork, including Tír Cluain. Those ones are suited to a barrier. It is not the best preventative measure but it is the first preventative measure if anything happens, God forbid. I give credit to the Minister. When I flagged this flooding, there was an issue with a bridge, and that has been removed. There was a massive issue with undergrowth along the riverbank and massive mounds of gravel were building up. They were removed only a number of weeks ago. This was in progress. I have no problem saying on record that the issue in this regard was not the OPW, the county council or the Government; it was Inland Fisheries Ireland. I am asking for a common-sense approach on this. It may not be the best solution, but there are quick-fix solutions for these people.

I am fortunate where I am now. I live up a hill but every time I hear of flooding, I am looking at these people. I have met the families. They are absolutely broken. While we are at it, when the new humanitarian fund came out, many families in estates who were part of the council housing stock were looked after but if you bought a house privately, you were on your own. You did not get a skip. Your insurance company is still fighting with you. I have met people who have had to hire solicitors to fight insurance companies to give them what they were entitled to after that flood. I have seen the devastation of it. It has broken people mentally. We have seen it, and it is mentioned on one page in the correspondence. They were very swift to act when it came to businesses because they are rate-payers. The minute you go out of the rate-paying area and there is no money coming back, it starts to get complicated, messy and slow. I appeal to all of them to do the quick fixes now and hopefully we will not be facing another bad winter this year. They are going to have to do something at some stage.