The Government has committed to spend at least €50m on a flood defence scheme for Cork City, with preferred engineering options due to be published in July.

Communities living next to rivers are on high alert amid warnings that the country’s major waterways could burst their banks today or over the weekend with the forecast of heavy rain.

The floods will return, but Cork will probably still be without an effective defence, says Investigative Reporter Conor Ryan.

Neil Hegarty, a former Cork City Architect, submitted an unsuccessful alternative proposal to the Jack Lynch Tunnel. The alternative was for a barrage-type river crossing which had some attractive and functional elements.

Some years back the planning talk was about a downriver crossing: will it be a bridge, will it be a tunnel?

Recent days and weeks have been more than challenging for those affected by the floods — and, as the weather forecasters have warned, that challenge is far from over.

Has anyone spelled out the alternatives to pylons and renewables, such as building a nuclear power station at Moneypoint and confining economic development to Dublin? Or just turning off all the lights and using candles?