Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I express my deepest sympathies to the people of Cork not only for the damage done to homes, but to businesses, public buildings and utilities, and also for the emotional trauma caused to individuals and the collective community. I wish to record my appreciation of the emergency services, the Garda, the Army, Civil Defence, community groups, fire brigades and public officials who implemented the emergency plan. They gave substantial time and made themselves available despite the public service dispute. A strong civic spirit was evident in the people of Cork who rallied around and tried to deal with a very difficult issue.

I do not wish to point fingers of blame but we must address some fundamental issues. There must be an independent investigation of the management of the water in the Lee area. An outside body with experience in hydraulics, meteorology and other areas must come together and try to find a solution to this difficulty. This is not about blaming but about ensuring that it does not happen again. I urge the Minister of State to consider appointing an outside individual with experience to look at the whole area of water management upstream and downstream of the dam, and the information flow between the ESB and the local authorities, in particular, Cork City Council.

The other area of major concern to me is that a city should be fully dependent on a single pumping station on its north side. This beggars belief. Its location may have been an oversight in the first place but now we are fully dependent on one pumping station and there is no link between the various local authorities. If one pumping station is out of commission or flooded, as was the case here, there should be some system of interconnectivity with local authority water coming from Cork County Council. It is not acceptable that an entire city-----

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