James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to mention also all the family doctors who kept their premises open until it was no longer safe to do so and reopened on Friday afternoon.

In the context of the weather, I want to speak about an issue raised earlier, that is, coastal erosion, especially in Fingal and Portrane. I was there yesterday evening and there is nothing like standing within 3 ft. of a 20 ft. precipice to remind one of how severe a situation is for a family. Four years ago it was 50 ft. away. On the beach one can see the sand bags that were put down next to the cliff edge to protect it in 2014. They are now some 35 ft. from the cliff base.I stood in a public park area where underneath the grass, which looked sound, there was 4 ft. of an indent where the sea has taken the sand away and it is deadly dangerous. People who do not know the area, older people or children could easily have a serious accident. The situation for this family is that three generations are living there - Gráinne, Amy and Faye. Gráinne showed me a video of a young man trying to hold the sea back at the height of the tide coming in. He was trying to keep a flimsy galvanised fence up because the original paling they had put up had fallen in. Those people are about to lose their house. We had the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, in the House this morning and he told us that he is open to having the situation addressed but we need Fingal County Council, which has done sterling work during the emergency in recent days, to take action and to act now in a compassionate and humanitarian way and with a sense of urgency. We have a homeless crisis and we are now going to add three more people to the homelessness list. We could have a fatality. The situation is very unsafe. There are 14 other houses at immediate risk. How many houses are going to fall into the sea before we take action?

It is time to put aside all the red tape. We have had reports. The then Minister of State, Brian Hayes, was in Portrane in 2012 and we have had several Ministers there since. The time for talk is over and the time for action is now. We can have a medium-term solution. I call on the Minister of State to bring together Fingal County Council, the heritage people and the environmental people with the community to resolve this issue in the medium term, but we need immediate action now to allow this family to save their home. They have been there since before the 1960s, as has that house. Instead of focusing on reasons why we might not, should not or could not do something, could we please take action and prevent another three generations of a family being made homeless? I address this to Fingal County Council. Could we not do the right thing - the humanitarian thing - and resolve this issue and allow those people to save their home that has been in their family for decades?

I will finish by saying that if action is not taken very soon, not alone will this house go but 14 other houses and businesses - a pub, restaurant and chipper - will go as well. Once they breach a little mound, which is only a short distance away, the whole of the Burrow of Portrane will be isolated with 1,200 to 1,500 people living there. How much will it cost to fix that and to put in a new road and bridge? I urge Fingal County Council to please act and to show the humanity I know those involved have and save this house and this family from becoming homeless.