John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

On Deputy Tuffy's question, as I said in my reply, my Department has funded project offices in each of the seven river basin districts, one of which will deal with the Shannon river basin district management plan. That will span the administrative boundaries of counties Limerick, Clare, north Tipperary, Offaly, Westmeath, Longford and Roscommon as well as significant portions of counties Kerry, Galway, Leitrim and Cavan. Other counties with smaller portions of the district include Sligo, south Tipperary, Mayo, Cork, Laois and Meath, while all of Limerick city is located within the district. We have allocated funding in excess of €8 million to support the development of the plan, which includes research, consultancy work and funding for the river basin district office to which I referred. This is where our focus ought to be.

Regarding Deputy Lynch's question on flood risk management, that is primarily a matter for my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Mansergh, who has responsibility for the OPW. I suggest that it would make sense for the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to invite the Minister of State to a meeting so that these issues can be teased out in detail.

See this speech in context