Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think a Deputy has another question down later on this matter. If there is any information I cannot provide today, I will certainly come back to the Deputy in writing. He raises an important issue. We had statements yesterday on climate change. I listened to most of it in my own office. In fairness, some Deputies are very supportive of the work we are trying to do in the OPW around raising the issue of climate adaptation. As I have constantly said, if we all reduce our emissions to zero tomorrow morning, the issue of water levels rising in counties Louth, Galway, Limerick and Cork is going to continue. The single biggest physical threat to communities' viability and our ability to sustain communities in this country is from the sea. We need to address it with a greater sense of urgency and I would say we need to address it with a greater sense of political urgency. All parties and groups here have an obligation to support what we are trying to do and raise this to a different level. At the moment, talking about all of the electric cars and all the emissions in the world will not protect the communities the Deputy has referred to nor those Deputy Mairéad Farrell has referred to further down the questions list.

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