Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. I will start by describing three serious flooding events that led to widespread devastation in west Cork in the latter half of August. On 13 August, the town of Rosscarbery was flooded, with several businesses and premises affected. There was widespread devastation of the road network in the hinterland of Rosscarbery, in villages or townlands that may not be familiar to the Minister of State, such as Glandore, Connonagh, Leap, Reenascreena and Rathbarry. Entire roads were completely washed away and most of them remain that way.

On 19 August, Bridge Street in the well-known town of Skibbereen was flooded. Skibbereen has a flood defence, but again premises and homes were flooded. Investigations into why that happened are ongoing. We thought we were over the worst of it, but a few days later the town of Bantry was severely flooded. The town of Bandon, on the eastern side of the constituency, experienced minor flooding affecting businesses and residences.

These three severe events occurred over the course of about 12 days. The initial Government response was quite commendable. The Minister of State with responsibility for dealing with flooding, Deputy O'Donovan, visited on three occasions. The Taoiseach visited Skibbereen after the flooding there, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, visited the area twice. The Government showed commendable seriousness in its response to these events. Moreover, the humanitarian response package extended to businesses and voluntary groups in these situations was made available to these towns and was mostly availed of by businesses. They were able to apply for some humanitarian funding.

However, the road network is still in the shocking condition I have described. Cork County Council has submitted an application for funding for repair works. The estimated cost comes to about €5 million. That damage is almost all confined to west Cork. Because of the damage to roads, residents of the affected area are forced to take detours taking 30 or 40 minutes. Many people find vehicular access to their houses has been cut off because the roads are not passable. The road serving a very popular area of the Wild Atlantic Way between Rosscarbery and Glandore was completely washed away. As a result, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area, Drombeg stone circle, is closed. The road in the village of Rathbarry was washed away, exactly replicating an event eight years ago when the entire road ended up at the bottom of the hill.

This is serious, and a range of issues are raised by the increased frequency of these events due to climate change. I am looking for a solid response in the form of funding, with a particular focus on the road network that has been completely washed away. Cork County Council is cash-strapped. It has not been collecting rates for several months and will not be able to foot the bill. I am looking for a firm commitment from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. There will also be housing issues, and I expect the Office of Public Works will be involved too. The engineers who are dealing with the damaged road network are unsure of where they stand at the moment and, above all, the people who live in these areas are very put out by the demolition of their road network. They need answers.

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