Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and for money that the Government has set aside and the plans it has to provide long-term flood defences are being delivered in a timely fashion.

We also have catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, an analysis of over 300 areas that are at risk of flooding. There are numerous flood risk management plans. In regard to Ballina where I live, I would like to know how the recommendations and plans going to be implemented and what funding will follow these plans because we are heading into the time of year for floods. Obviously floods happened sooner than expected in Donegal and I extend my sincere sympathies to the people of Donegal. Floods are a shocking experience and I have witnessed it first hand in Ballina and Crossmolina. We need to know that progress has been made. The people need to know what work is being done. We need some accountability from the OPW and the consultants it has engaged so that we know this matter is getting their full attention. To my mind, the delays in Crossmolina seem inordinate.

I would also like to express my sincere sympathies to the family of the former Taoiseach, the late Liam Cosgrave. May his soul rest in peace.My colleague, Senator McDowell, has paid tribute to the late Liam Cosgrave and I wish to be associated with it. I knew this unique man well. I grew up in his constituency of Dún Laoghaire. I extend particular sympathy to his son Liam Thomas, or Liam T. Cosgrave Jnr. as we know him, who served as Cathaoirleach, Leas-Chathaoirleach and Member of the Seanad. He served as a Deputy and also as a county councillor in the constituency in which I live. I know the Cosgrave family exceptionally well.

I was looking at archive footage and a tribute shown by RTE last week to the late Liam Cosgrave. Senator McDowell spoke and paid tribute to him on that programme and this made me recall my memories of him as somebody who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a shrewd operator. He knew about local politics when nobody knew about it. He had his key people in Dún Laoghaire. As people know, Dún Laoghaire has a very strong Fine Gael tradition that goes back to the beginning of this State. In this four-seat constituency, the Fine Gael Party has three seats in Dáil Éireann. That is a wonderful achievement for the party and I am sure it hopes to keep two and aims to keep three. He was a man of exceptional integrity who always put local issues to the very top of his political agenda. He opened schools and always attended, even when we was Taoiseach, what appeared to be small events across the constituency. He was at them all, he was the chief. I think we can learn from that. It was not beneath him to go and meet very small groups of people. I knew him well and extend my condolences to his family.

May I request the Leader, and I know he has committed to doing so, to have a debate on the services of the National Rehabilitation Hospital because they are really important. As of today, there are hundreds of people needing rehabilitation who remain in acute beds in our general hospitals and need to go for rehabilitation before they can go home. Will the Leader agree to facilitate that in the next two to three weeks?