Coastal Erosion
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Kevin Boxer Moran (IND), Longford-Westmeath

I fully appreciate where the Deputy is coming from. When I visited Kerry, I saw this issue at first hand and I spoke to the residents who are badly affected by it. I have set out the changes I have brought about in the minor works scheme to go from €750,000 to €2 million. It is not about the money; it is about the local authorities coming up with a scheme. I encourage the Deputy, as I encouraged other Members yesterday in the House, to go back to his local authority. We are funding staff to the local authorities. We encourage them to come up with a scheme. It has to be driven by the local authority. It is not driven by the Government or by the OPW. We fund the local authorities. If the local authority comes into my Department with a scheme and it meets the criteria, we will fund it.
I do not want to see people in Kerry or any other part of the country suffering. Since I have taken up this role we are at a maximum. We have never seen the like of it spent before. That is €102 million with regard to flooding. We have 100 schemes at various stages taking place at present. That has never happened. That is the positivity that is happening within the Government but the people that Deputy Cahill represents feel we are not getting to them or reaching out to them. I encourage the Deputy to go back to the local authority. He has seen what we have done in Listowel. We went down. There was an issue and we moved with the local authorities. We saw the results of that when we saw the finished work.
I want to work with Deputy Cahill, I want to work with the local authorities but most of all I want to work with the residents. I appeal to Deputy Cahill to go back to the local authority and sit down with the engineers to see whether a minor works or interim measures project can be done from an engineering point of view for the people the Deputy spoke about so eloquently. I will support them 100%. I do not want people to say that they need extra money but the Government is not delivering. It is not that. I have the money. I have a huge budget for flooding. The Government is very driven because we know what coastal erosion is doing now. Just out the road in Portrane, we have to try to deal with a very delicate situation over the next couple of days. I will work with Deputy Cahill going forward but I ask him to go back to the local authority and see if they can come up with a scheme.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-17