Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Taoiseach and Ministers were able to visit Midleton and other areas. This problem is going to keep going on. I totally sympathise with the business people for the devastation they faced. We have flood defences in Clonmel. I salute my former colleague, Martin Mansergh, who played a big role in obtaining these defences. They are 90% successful.

We keep building flood defences and planning them but we refuse to clean - dredge - our waterways, rivers and ports. The port of Waterford into which the Suir flows used to be cleaned every second year. It is utter folly to be trying to build up defences. Every bit of dirt from this roof and every other roof ends up in the streams and rivers and watercourses. The sooner we cop on to ourselves, excavate and clean the rivers, the better. When I was a boy, every pond, small watercourse and stream was physically cleaned with horses and carts. Now we have every kind of equipment and we can barely take a bush out of the rivers. It is ridiculous what is going on with drainage schemes. It is utter madness. Rivers will not contain the water unless we clean them.

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