Dan Boyle (Green Party)

At this moment the ESB is briefing representatives from the Cork area regarding the release of water from the Inniscarra dam and its effect on the flooding events in Cork during the past week. I hope to be there shortly to hear what has to be said because I believe an investigation is needed. That event was possibly a factor in what transpired. That said, the flooding that occurred in the country this week would have occurred in any case. We are talking about the degree of flooding and the damage that was caused in consequence.

The re-emergence and regularity of catastrophic weather events in the past decade would have been met ten years ago by county and city engineers with the attitude that such floods were a once in 20, 30 or 50 years event. Everybody now realises that the fact they are occurring every two to five years represents a fundamental change in weather and climate. We cannot divorce ourselves from the fact that we have contributed to the climate in which we live and this is one of the effects.

The other side of the coin is that local authorities have far from commended themselves by the type of planning decisions that were made throughout the country, for example, the large degree of building on flood plains. Every member of a local authority during the past 20 years must take stock of decisions they made as individuals-----