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

I thank the Minister of State and the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy O'Donovan, for this response. There is some new and very interesting information in there. The harbour at Ballinacurra near Midleton was navigated by tall ships up until not that long ago, but now it is all silted up. The local people on the ground tell me dredging of the river is important and would make a big difference. The engineers, as the Minister of State said, do not really agree with all that, but I will take this away and study it and maybe come back at a later time.

On Castlemartyr, the council looked for funding to do some dredging there around the bridge in 2018, but that money was not available at the time. I ask the Minister of State to look at that again to see whether the funding can be made available now to get that work done. Diverting the Kiltha River is something I have not heard of before. It is an interesting idea and would certainly solve a lot of problems, if it can be done. However, I am concerned about the time involved. Given that we are talking about the appointment of consultants, consultation with statutory bodies, public consultation and so on, it could be years before anything happens. It is important, given what we experienced just four weeks ago, that this work be progressed much faster than is envisaged in what the Minister of State has said. There is huge concern this could happen again. We have heard reports from the Met Office that the Gulf Stream is positioned such that it is going to be diverting and directing many more storms our way. We certainly do not want to see that sort of flooding happen again. I put it to the Minister of State and the OPW that emergency works are needed. We really need to get people on the ground now to get some works done and prevent this happening. As the Minister of State put it so well at the start of his reply, this must be done so homes and businesses are not devastated again. We must do all we can in the interim to prevent that. Dredging of the rivers and raising the banks can have a big impact. I put it to the Minister of State that we need to get this done sooner rather than later. There is a long winter ahead of us yet.

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