Coastal erosion and sea levels
Deputy Stanton warned that rising sea levels could affect major parts of the coast, including his constituency, and asked about preparedness and strategy. The Taoiseach agreed adaptation needed to be accelerated and said he would check the status of the coastal change management strategy.
The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has said that within the next 30 years, 2 million of our citizens could be impacted by rising sea levels.
It is projected that we will have a permanent sea level rise of up to 1 m within the next 30 years. Should we not be planning for this now, as other countries are? The national coastal change management strategy is long overdue. Will the Government take this issue seriously and what are its plans to offset the inevitability of a permanent sea level rise? Our cities will be impacted.
Comment on this
In my constituency, Cobh, Youghal and Midleton will be flooded if this happens.
Comment on this
I agree with the Deputy, who has made a fair point. We need to work on adaptation more aggressively. I will check the current status of the national coastal change management strategy. We have to prepare. In the past two days, we saw the benefit of preparation and planning by our emergency teams and the different Departments, agencies and local authorities. When things go well, the debate is always, "Should we have done X, Y and Z in preparing?" The inevitable debate is now happening but the bottom line is that I have admired the level of preparation a lot of the agencies did and likewise with climate change and the impact on our coasts and so forth.