Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to know that Cork was founded by St Finbar. I thank Deputy Martin for clearing up the matter as it was a source of discussion over the years as to who founded it. In the past four years, €250 million has been spent on capital works for flood defences in Mallow, Clonmel and Kilkenny. These defences have, by and large, worked successfully. The sum of €50 million for this year is one area of Government expenditure that has not been cut. I accept the figure is inadequate to deal with the scale of what we have to deal with but it is important to understand that there is an interim programme of providing emergency defences, with a programme to follow, requiring complex engineering and much investment to put in place defences that can keep out the Atlantic and deal with the scale of floodwaters based on the weather that comes over the next number of years. No one is able to predict it at this stage. Areas in the country that have not been flooded before and are experiencing this for the first time or areas where the flooding is worse this year give an indication of the scale of what we face. Tomorrow, we will have an update at the Cabinet sub-committee on jobs and on Tuesday we will have a detailed report from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, and the emergency units and local authorities around the country. We will have a debate in the House after that.

I cannot answer about what places in the country the Minister, Deputy Hogan, will visit but from speaking to him early this morning I understand he will visit a number of locations this week to see for himself. The emergency response committee met on 3 and 4 February and there is a full scale analysis of reports from local authorities in the areas flooded. Some houses are cut off, some roads are washed away and I heard from farmers this morning about flooding in different areas. Our immediate problem is people and the humanitarian assistance to people with houses flooded who have nowhere to stay. We must accommodate them and provide community welfare assistance to them. That is being co-ordinated through the local authorities and local committees community groups with the Department of Social Protection. Payments are being made on this. Hopefully the weather will not be too bad over the weekend and hopefully it will be better than last weekend. We will have an accurate assessment on Tuesday from around the country. Listening to the European spokesperson, the accumulated extent of damage can be taken into account if a European application is to be lodged. We will consider that but I cannot say whether it will be eligible.

In respect of the Government response, let us see the scale of it, the immediate priorities, the interim emergency plan to be deployed and the longer-term analysis of the best thing to do from an engineering perspective. No more planning permissions will be issued for floodplains.

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