Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is a railway line that runs from Dún Laoghaire, which is my constituency, to Wexford. Along that route, Irish Rail has done a lot of work to map out where the likely erosion risks are within my own constituency and within Wicklow, near Wicklow town and probably within Wexford as well. Historically, that railway line has been moved back from the coast, close to where I live. Over 100 years ago it was moved back and I wonder whether it will have to be moved again. There are houses that are closer to the coast.

We cannot take a short-term-only strategy. We cannot just say to these homeowners that we will help them if their houses are about to fall into the sea; we have to take a longer-term strategy as well. However, we cannot ignore the short-term risks. That document from last year with 15 recommendations is meant to cover short, medium and long-term approaches. The Minister for housing acknowledges that there is a need for a longer-term, co-ordinated approach to tackling the issue of coastal change and to provide a framework for key decisions to be taken on how Ireland can best manage its coasts, being aware of future risks and the associated planning requirements.

I absolutely agree that coastal communities need to be included. If somebody is living in a house and is seeing, metre by metre, the cliff face getting closer to him or her, I can understand the anxiety of living there and wondering whether the house the person paid a mortgage on or inherited is going to be lost. In some areas this is the case, particularly where there have been glacial deposits and the type of soil is such that it can simply be washed away, a metre at a time, as we have seen in some cases along the east coast. Dealing with this is really complex and as the Senator knows, when one fortifies one part of the coast, often it has an effect further up the coast. We put in barriers, such as rock armour, but whatever we do in one part of the coast affects another part. It is a difficult thing. It needs co-ordination across Government and it also needs at the involvement of local communities.