David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. She referenced "flood risk" more than once in her reply. A sea level rise does not recede. When it rises, it stays up. There is a difference between it and flood risk - floods which come and go. When the sea level rises, it stays up and does not recede. This is what we have to look at.

I invite the Minister of State to check out Climate Central. It has an interactive map that allows a person to enter in how much the sea level will rise and to see the impact it will have in that person's area. Anything in red will be under water. That part of our island that will be under water will not emerge again. It will be submerged forevermore.

Flood risk is a misnomer in some ways. I would prefer if we were talking about sea level rise. It will rise and it will not go back down because the ice melts. For the Ceann Comhairle's information, there are 200,000 glaciers shrinking in the world. Some of these are enormous; they are as big as Manhattan. If all the ice in Greenland and the Arctic were to melt, global sea levels would rise by 200 ft or 60 m higher than they are at present. Neither I, the Ceann Comhairle nor anyone here will see that, but our children or grandchildren will possibly be affected by this. It is serious, it is happening and there is no point in waiting until it is up to our knees or our oxters. We have to start planning for it now and to start talking about it now.

I very much want to see the interdepartmental group the Minister of State referred to publish its report fairly soon. The UK and other countries are way ahead of us on this. They have action plans. They have things happening right now to plan for this. We have to start doing it before it is too late. There is no point in having the Minister of State below in Waterford with the water coming in over her wellies and saying, like King Canute, that it will go out at some stage; it will not. It will come in and it will stay in.

See this speech in context