Flood response and housing
Deputy Buckley questions the State's flood response after Cork County Council sold flooded houses in Midleton rather than repairing them. The Tánaiste says the Government is spending heavily on flood protection and that the Minister of State has led the response.
Page 129 of the programme for Government refers to flood response. It says:
Following the unprecedented flooding in December 2015 we will review the response protocols of the State to examine if a more rapid and co-ordinated response to local incidents can be achieved.
In Midleton in 2015 several county council houses flooded. The only response that we have seen is that Cork County Council is now selling those properties and have not even advertised them on daft.ie. Are other county councils engaged in similar actions or what is the response protocol for flooding?
Comment on this
The Government's financial response to flooding has been quite dramatic. The Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, and his predecessor Deputy Canney before him, have been to the fore of this. I am not familiar with the individual houses in east Cork but I assure the Deputy that we are spending more on flood protection now than we have at any point in recent history.