Climate Action Plan
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Liam Quaide (SD), Cork East

The urbanisation of our flood plains and the mass removal of native trees and hedgerows in recent decades have drastically reduced our land's ability to hold excess water. Alongside conventional engineering schemes, we need to maximise our potential for nature-based approaches to flood management. There is a clear opportunity here for farmers to be paid a premium for taking measures such as the construction of leaky dams and ponds and the planting of native trees on their land. Cork County Council commissioned a survey into such measures upstream from Midleton in August 2024, raising hope locally that these options would form part of the wider flood response, yet this report has still not been published and there is little sign that this work is being actively pursued. Nature-based measures are not a silver bullet to flood risk, but international experience shows they can be very effective around particular settlements. They can often be delivered quickly, at relatively low cost and without the need for planning permission. They are a win-win for people at risk of flooding, farmers and biodiversity. Will Government now ensure that nature-based solutions to flood management are actively advanced alongside structural works, with the ambition, co-ordination and leadership that affected communities need?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17