Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

One of the advantages of genuinely minor relief works under €100,000 is that one does not have to go through many procedures to procure them. With the more valuable contracts, unfortunately, one is obliged to go through public tendering procedures. The European Union does not give us a choice in the matter. Many minor relief works are relatively simple and can be done quickly, but the more complicated a task is the more it requires thought, work and research to be effective.

I hope, as I am sure the Senator does, that the weather will give us some breathing space. Based on existing criteria, many of these flood events are supposed to occur once in a period of several decades. There is a real problem in Cork, but I hope we will have some breathing space and have advanced further by the time the next serious flood event occurs.