Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I cannot overstate the damage that has been done in Midleton and how this is a threat to human lives. I saw the buildings children were being lifted out of and the flow was so strong people could not stand in those situations, so this is very serious. The Minister mentioned earlier there are things outside of the Government's control and mentioned planning and the courts system. The Government is actually in control of those spaces because it is in control of the employment of planners. Right now there is a serious dearth of planners in county councils. We do not have a date yet in Cork County Council for the planning application for the flood defence in Midleton that was promised in 2016. That is incredible. The reason there is not enough planners is the councils are not paying enough for them and private companies that are paying more are getting them. An Bord Pleanála has 20,000 homes stuck in its system because it does not have the planners to deal with them.

The Minister of State is new in this role, but he might be able to answer this. Cork County Council identified four engineers it was going to assign to look over the job in Midleton. It applied for funding from the OPW and the Minister of State's predecessor refused to fund that. Will the Minister of State reverse that and fund these engineers to ensure this gets built?

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