Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We offer our congratulations on the brilliant reaction of so many communities, including voluntary groups and ordinary individuals, who worked together with the public services recently to deal with unprecedented heavy rainfall and floods due to a number of natural factors. These included high winds and tidal surges.

We will have to revert to this issue on many occasions. Clearly, the warnings of bad weather are not over yet. Who knows what weather patterns will come in from the Atlantic in the next three or four weeks? I agree with Deputy Martin that recent flooding has not occurred to this extent in living memory. The extent of planning permissions issued on flood plains is coming back to haunt so many people. We should now rue the day because, clearly, a rush to judgment was penny wise and pound foolish.

Coming from Cork, Deputy Martin will know that the outcome was not as bad as people had expected. That is not to say, however, that the situation was in any way acceptable. The line Minister is the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, in whose Department is the unit dealing with emergency response planning. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, has responsibility for the Office of Public Works, which is linked to the Department of Finance. He has been around the country and will visit Cork later this week to see for himself the extent of the damage inflicted by flood waters.

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