It is said that a picture paints a thousand words and that is very true with the flooding that Deputy Mattie McGrath just mentioned across the southern part of the country and in particular in Cork and west Waterford in recent days. I will not elaborate on the damage there, which has been well documented across news and social media. I welcome that the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, the Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, have visited various affected areas. I welcome the humanitarian assistance scheme and the broadening of the scheme over the last 24 hours. I specifically highlight the Glashaboy River flood relief scheme in Glanmire. We have met the contractors on that site, Sorensen Civil Engineering, along with representatives of the OPW and Cork City Council. Discussions are taking place at present about rejigging the workload schedule because it will take about 28 months for that programme to unfold. We are discussing bringing contractors to the worst affected areas to prevent further incidents in the next two years. I ask the Taoiseach to use his good offices to help reprioritise that scheme to address the worst-affected areas.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I know from what he has said to me before and what Deputy Colm Burke and others have told me that the situation in Glanmire particularly affecting Sarsfields is very serious and we are keen to help out there. I believe the flood defence works, which are under way, helped, but they need to be completed. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, had a very good meeting with Cork County Council just yesterday which he very briefly briefed me on. It looked at what could be done to speed up projects or what interim works could be carried out to reduce the risk of future flooding. I will ask him to speak directly to the Deputy about that because he will be able to provide more details on what we might be able to do.