Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I support Senator John Paul Phelan in regard to the amendment to the Order of Business in bringing forward the flooding debate, which is essential at the present time because flooding is a national disaster. Each local authority was to agree a framework document by the end of September 2008, and that document was to be reappraised at the end of each following year. What has happened to towns like Clonmel, which had previous flooding? What happened to the appraisals? Has the Minister taken this into account because, if he did, nothing happened and no funding was put in place to alleviate future flooding.

I ask the Leader for a debate with regard to public private partnerships, a request I have made before. I heard the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government state on radio recently that he had to write a cheque for €30 million for the Ringsend plant. At the time this project was put in place, the then Minister, Deputy Cullen, said it was the bees knees of all waste water treatment units and a state of the art centre of excellence. It did not work properly and there were problems. Annual inflation charges are being put in place as they were agreed within the public private partnerships. As we are in a deflationary position, what can be done about these? We need a debate on those public private partnerships.