Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will share time if it will help. I thank the Minister of State. I am glad to hear about the approach, in particular his highlighting of the concerns about climate change. We need to ensure in all our approaches to dealing with flooding that people are educated on the impact of climate change and the effect it is having on our waterways and on erosion.

I wish to raise a specific issue, namely, the case of the Ahare river, which is near Castletown, in north Wexford. When the Ahare river floods, a road becomes impassible and Castletown, the most northerly village in County Wexford, becomes effectively cut off from much of the rest of the county. One has to drive the long way around to access Castletown. The former Minister of State, Kevin Boxer Moran, visited the area. It has been a serious problem for many years because of its scale, and there has been a very active campaign led by local councillor Joe Sullivan to try to address it. Wexford County Council will bring proposals to the Minister of State's Department, on foot of a request from the OPW, within the next few weeks. This is a priority for County Wexford, and I ask the Minister of State to ensure that this happens because Castletown is, as I said, effectively being left cut off.