James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I acknowledge that it is just over 12 months since Storm Babet hit east Cork. The incident has left an enormous footprint on our landscape, homes and businesses, and on much of our public amenities, whether public roads, community hospitals, Garda stations or schools in the area. People are dealing with the trauma of that. I acknowledge the enormous contribution made by our emergency services locally and by the responders on the county council who worked around the clock this time last year to get people back on their feet and back into their homes where possible. That was a long process over many months for hundreds of homeowners and business owners in the area. As I am sure the Minister of State will know, Cork County Council has worked diligently wherever it can from an engineering point of view, on an interim basis, working with community stakeholders, local county councillors, me as a Dáil Deputy for the people of east Cork, and the Minister of State. I acknowledge that the Minister of State took the time to come to us on so many occasions. Not many do that on a repeat basis, but Deputy O'Donnell did, and that needs to be said.

I do not want to be overly critical of what the OPW has been doing over the last months. I have been very familiar in the last 12 months, post Storm Babet, of its ongoing efforts. I think almost everything that can be done is being done. I know there is frustration and people who are rightly emotive about their own homes. I raise a couple of key questions. Yesterday, we had a meeting of the council engineers to go through, in committee, some of the emergency responses pertaining to the OPW. These are valid questions. People need the reassurance. We have seen €5.8 million allocated under what is now the largest ever individual property protection, IPP, scheme. It is envisaged to protect about 920 homes and businesses in the area affected by Storm Babet.

A small proportion of people's applications have been declined. They would appreciate the questions being asked. Is it worth that level of scrutiny for some of the homeowners who have shown, in photography, water coming right up to their porches and doors? In some cases, these people managed to get home on time. They worked their hearts out to get small, interim measures done, with makeshift barriers and sandbagging of their homes. They have seen their applications turned down. Could the Minister of State look at this? It takes from the enormous work that is being done by the county council. He knows that. He has been there. He has seen the work that has been put in by the director of services, John Slattery, our county engineer. Could we look at marginally increasing the budget to deal with a number of extra cases, which would be less than 100? It is so limited. Is it worth doing what we can so that it is done and provides a sense of reassurance to those people?