Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State. I echo the appreciation for Senators Rabbitte and Paul Daly for bringing this important Bill to the floor of the Seanad. Like others, I have stood here over the past couple of moths and complained about flooding in areas that do not usually flood. I have spoken about Dromcolliher, Newcastle West and Abbeyfeale in County Limerick flooding in the middle of the summer. I know that the Shannon lakes seem very distant from those communities, but the truth is that water management is interconnected. Blocked channels, restricted flow, outdated controls and slow response times all contribute to downstream pressure. When water cannot effectively find its own way, it makes its own path. When the flow is not being given direction, it will find its own path. A lot of the time, that takes it through our communities.

We are talking about 90-year-old legislation and I am sure that our climate has changed many times in those 90 years. We need to keep up to date with what our climate is doing and the changes that come about. I am not going to take up a huge amount of time. I thank the Senators for bringing forward this legislation. It seems on the surface to be a really good change to the legislation. As matters stand, we are quite happy for it to pass Second Stage.