In Reply to: re: street protest by the unemployed. posted by mike van dyk on November 26, 2009 at 20:45:36:

There are 300,000 unoccupied houses in the state at the moment - and pretty much all of them private. The politics of unsocial behaviour in housing estates (and I assume this is what you are referring to) I think is a separate issue but undoubtedly elected councillors run shy of this time and time again - and we should not elect them again if they don't sort these matters out.

But have a listen to yesterday's Ryan Tubridy programme describing the woes of people living in unfinished (very much private) housing estates. The negative equity is what we are paying for now - especially on the unsold houses.

As for our flood plains - they are clearly marked on our OSI maps - areas where the map says in black and white 'liable to flood'. And check out Floodmaps.ie - it has records of pretty much every flood that has ever happened. If you build on an area that is liable to flood or has flooded in the past you should not be surprised when the water comes to your door.

The Bandon flooding is a good example of stupid building - a shopping centre built on what the locals called 'The Bog' has caused backup into the town causing floods that were never seen before the shopping centre tried to do the job of the natural flood plain.

The fact that building on flood plains was allowed in a time when climate change was being forecast makes it all even more ridiculous and scandalous. The 'record' rainfall this year is likely to be much more regular occurrence - and this was predicted. So we will be adding brand new bigger and better flood plains alongside our rivers.

• floodmaps.ie - Don't buy a house without looking at it