James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my constituency colleague in raising this issue. Midleton town was absolutely devastated by Storm Babet. Both the Minister and Minister of State will be aware from visiting the town of the impact the storm had. We need to see every single function available at Cabinet, departmental and local authority level utilised to drive forward the proposed project. We need to see the utilisation of measures such as the Arterial Drainage Act and everything that is available to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, the Ministers around him at the Cabinet table and his Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. If this is not done, we will risk a repeat of what happened in Midleton where many hundreds of homes and businesses were utterly devastated. My desire and, I am sure, that of my constituency colleagues is to see the flood relief scheme delivered as a matter of urgency.

Two particular areas of my constituency, Castlemartyr and Mogeely, need immediate focus at State level to see what can be done to help local residents to deliver schemes in those areas.

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