Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael)

I support the request that the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, be invited to come to the House to report on the flooding in Cork. It is appropriate to wait until next week when the reports from the city and county managers should be available. There is no point in demanding a debate at this stage. We should allow the emergency services to deal with the situation on the ground. My sympathy is with businesses people and home owners who are experiencing unprecedented difficulties, particularly in Douglas. I am concerned that a new culvert put in place in the past 12 months has failed and that the rainfall predictions have been exceeded. It would be appropriate for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to feed into the debate. Without going into the climate change debate, the levels of rainfall predicted have been exceeded in the past month in the Cork area. If we are to install expensive facilities to prevent flooding we must go back to the drawing board and revise much of the design.