Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am glad we are having this debate. I wish it had happened four weeks ago, but unfortunately the Minister was busy. In my many comments on this issue I have acknowledged it is not entirely the Minister's fault because, as he outlined, we had an appalling summer last year and a prolonged winter, but the omens were there at the beginning of March in the long-range weather forecast-----