2026-02-19

Last week, during Private Members' business, I listened carefully to the views of colleagues. We discussed the Government’s work on managing flood risk and responding to recent events. I welcome another chance today to continue that discussion. Flooding has become more common and more damaging both here and abroad. We have all seen the distress it causes homeowners, businesses, landowners and entire communities. Other nearby countries have also suffered serious floods recently. I again acknowledge the hardship faced by everyone affected by the recent flooding. I have visited many of the impacted areas myself. I have spoken to residents and business owners and understand their fear and frustration. I assure them and the House that the Government is fully committed to reducing flood risk and supporting those who need help. I look forward to working with them to deliver real solutions for communities affected by flooding. Reducing flood risk requires action across many Government Departments. The interdepartmental flood policy co-ordination group leads this work. Flood policy is built on three main pillars. The first is prevention, which involves avoiding or removing flood risk such as by stopping construction in flood-prone areas. The Office of the Planning Regulator and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage play key roles in this. The second is protection, which involves reducing the likelihood or severity of floods. This includes major flood relief schemes and, where suitable, nature-based solutions. The third is preparedness, which involves helping people and communities prepare for and respond to floods. This includes public information, emergency actions and early warnings. The co-ordination group also works to raise awareness and to encourage people and businesses to protect themselves and their property. Recent supports include an emergency response payment from Department of Social Protection covering eight counties with 137 payments issued by 13 February 2026 and the enhanced emergency humanitarian flooding scheme from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. Funding for the latter scheme increased from €20,000 to €100,000 with 53 applications received by 16 February 2026. In 2018, the OPW completed the State’s largest ever flood-risk study - the CFRAM programme. It covered 80% of the primary flood risk in Ireland and identified solutions to protect 95% of that risk. Key outputs include flood maps for 300 communities and 29 river basin flood risk management plans detailing suitable flood relief measures. These plans guide Government investment in flood protection, which includes around 150 flood relief schemes, protection for 23,000 homes and businesses and a Government commitment of €1.3 billion under the national development plan to 2030. When complete, 95% of properties assessed will have flood protection. Other measures will address remaining risks, including minor flood mitigation and coastal protection projects, individual property protection, the voluntary homeowners relocation scheme and enhanced forecasting and community resilience programmes. So far, the OPW has invested €580 million in 56 completed schemes, provided protection to 13,580 properties and delivered €2 billion in estimated avoided damages. Since 2018, the number of schemes at design, planning or construction stage has increased to 100 active schemes with ten schemes at construction, five schemes at detailed design, ten schemes at planning stage and 69 schemes in development or preliminary design. There are limits on available specialist engineering and environmental expertise. As a result, schemes are delivered in two tranches. A national pilot is under way to test a more efficient delivery model for tranche two schemes. Flood relief schemes take time because they require extensive surveys and environmental assessments as they must meet legal and EU requirements, they involve public consultation and judicial reviews can delay progress. Typical delivery time is about 11 years from start to finish. Other measures include minor flood mitigation works and the coastal protection scheme. Since 2009, the scheme has funded 900 projects, provided over €70 million in investment and reduced risk for 8,000 properties. In 2025, the funding limit increased from €750,000 to €2 million per project. Following Storm Chandra, I asked local authorities with major schemes under way to list all possible temporary measures to reduce risk while long-term solutions are being developed. I expect these plans shortly. The OPW maintains 11,500 km of river channels, 800 km of embankments, 260,000 ha of agricultural land and flood protection for 20,000 properties, 2,400 km of roads and 77 towns and villages I thank all those involved in flood preparations and response - local authorities, An Garda Síochána, the HSE, civil defence and many more. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage leads national co-ordination through the national emergency co-ordination group. Stage I of the national flood forecasting and warning service was completed in 2023. Met Éireann now provides daily flood guidance to local authorities and State agencies. Stage II is now under the Government task force on emergency planning. It will deliver more detailed and accurate forecasts and community flood warnings. Climate change will bring more storms and extreme weather and flood risk management must adapt accordingly. The OPW has published its climate change sectoral adaptation plan for 2025 to 2030. All new and ongoing flood schemes must now include a climate adaptation plan; nature-based solutions where feasible; an assessment of future sea-level rise scenarios, including rises up to 2 m; and consideration of tidal barriers for cities and major coastal areas. The OPW also supports planning authorities to ensure flood risk is properly considered in development decisions. I know many communities feel anxious as they wait for flood relief schemes to be delivered. I assure the House the Government is doing everything possible to progress this work quickly and effectively. I remain open to all ideas that can speed up delivery or further reduce flood risk. I thank Members for their attention and look forward to the debate.

I thank the Minister of State for his statement and his work on this matter, in particular his commitment. The Minister of State has visited Carlow and Kilkenny but I have seen him and the Taoiseach go around the country to anywhere that was flooded, which is important. It is important that they see what is happening and are able to speak to everyone. It is safe to say that we have never seen rain as heavy or flooding as bad as that which we have experienced over the past number of weeks. I acknowledge the upset and devastation that has been experienced by people across the country recently. Seeing one's home, business, housing estate or town under water and trying to manage the clean up and repairs has to be a very stressful and devastating experience. I will highlight an area in my own county of Carlow that has been greatly affected by Storm Chandra. Clonegal is a small rural village in the south east of County Carlow. Over the past number of weeks, the village has faced what its residents are saying is the worst flooding they have seen in over 20 years with several houses and properties flooded after the River Derry burst its banks. Around 300 people live in Clonegal and at least eight houses were badly affected by flooding, which has greatly upset families. I know that across Ireland, many other families are feeling like this. I know the Minister of State visited Carlow town, which was also hit hard with 250 houses on Burrin Road faced with gardens underwater and near-damage to their homes and cars. We were very lucky with Carlow County Council, which monitored things, watched the water and had pumps out. That was a significant challenge because there was a risk it would go into their houses. When I went around and spoke to many of the residents, I found that the biggest issue was the fact that people in a flood-prone area cannot get home insurance, an issue we have to look at. We need to make sure that people living in flood-prone areas can get home insurance. Preventative flood measures in these areas and in communities across Ireland such as natural flood defences and permanent water pumps would help ease the anxiety of residents about further damage to their property. Several areas were affected, including St. Mullins and Graiguenamanagh in County Kilkenny. Again, I thank the Minister of State and the Taoiseach for visiting. My constituency is full of small independent businesses but, again, they are having issues with insurance because of the flooding. I welcome the decision by the Minister, Deputy Burke, to increase the threshold for emergency humanitarian flooding support for impacted businesses from €20,000 to €100,000. The assessment required for this grant needs to be completed quickly to allow our small businesses to get back up and running as quickly as possible. I know the Minister of State has been working with the different Departments and I thank him for that. I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to everyone in Carlow and Kilkenny, the county councils and the local authority staff, including the outdoor workers, who worked on protecting homes and businesses. We need to take this opportunity to provide more funding to, and place more focus on, our flood prevention scheme - I had several meetings about this with the Minister of State - and to further support the fantastic work done by our county councils up and down the country. They have done a brilliant job. I thank the services the Minister of State thanked, including the Red Cross, An Garda Síochána, the HSE and the Civil Defence. I also thank neighbours and friends who came out to help. Anyone who was in a position to do so, came out to help. While we had these awful floods, and they were horrific, we saw great community spirit. Everybody was helping everybody. When people are there to help their neighbours and everyone is working together, that community spirit and engagement is really positive and lovely. The Taoiseach visited communities. It was also important that when the Minister of State and the Taoiseach visited Carlow and Kilkenny they spoke to all the residents. They also spoke to the council staff and all the different people who were affected. The best one of all was that our own Carlow weatherman, Alan O'Reilly, came to visit. Alan had a lot of ideas, which he spoke to the Minister of State about, and I have given some information. That was important as well. I am aware the Taoiseach and Minister of State met last week to consider the State's response to extreme weather events. It was agreed that work on the flood relief schemes will be accelerated, and interim measures will be implemented in areas at the risk of flooding. The OPW will be given the authority to procure equipment for local authorities to manage this, which is really welcome and a good move. I thank the Minister of State for that. Local authorities will also be given authority to start road repairs, and this is critical for those areas that have suffered damage. I have spoken to representatives and I have seen roads that were really affected. I also spoke to a lot of residents from affected areas. Again, we are looking at funding for this because we need to top up the normal road grant funding. The Minister of State has met with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, as I have, and all of these things are important. For communities awaiting major flood relief schemes, the Government has asked local authorities to identify all possible interim measures to reduce the risk of flooding. It is expected that the Government will receive these plans in the coming weeks. We are keen to progress any work that will reduce the risk of flooding for communities that have been badly affected. Flood forecasting and warnings are critical for preparation. I welcome that stage I of the national flood forecasting and warning service was completed in December 2023 and stage II is now under way, which is really important. It is critical that we are prepared and work on forecasting is done as soon as possible. This will focus on providing the flood warnings directly to communities and improving the detail and accuracy of forecasts. This work is being overseen by the Government's task force on emergency planning, which is really important. Unfortunately, the reality is that our climate is changing. We are seeing more frequent storms and extreme weather events. In response, the OPW has published the sectoral climate change adaptation plan for flood risk management for the years 2025 to 2030. All flood relief schemes now require scheme adaptation plans to ensure they account for climate change impacts that can be adapted to future flood risks. I want to acknowledge the Department of Finance because it is engaging with stakeholders, such as the Central Bank, the OPW, the insurance industry, which is critical, and other Departments on the development of a long-term strategic approach to the issues relating to flood insurance. There are so many issues and this falls to so many different Departments. This is about the different Departments working together and collaborating to make sure we find a solution. Solutions are needed to address this, and timing is important. All the different Ministers are working with the Minister of State on this. Solutions are needed to address the nature of the protection gap that exists in Ireland, especially as the flood protection gap tends to be concentrated in different areas. As the Minister of State knows, we have to concentrate on these areas when we are working with the different Departments. I thank the Minister of State and my colleagues across Government for their work and their response to the storm. There are areas that have been really affected but I know this will be addressed. The work the Minister of State's Department has done, and the commitment shown by him, the Taoiseach and all the different Departments has been crucial and has played a huge role.

As the Minister of State is aware, the floods in the south east were the severest in many years. Unfortunately, my hometown of Enniscorthy, along with Bunclody, Bridgetown, Our Lady’s Island, Kilmore, Kilcarberry and Killurin experienced extensive flooding with some roads obliterated altogether. Sixty businesses were affected, some of which have stated they will not open again. Some 35 homes were destroyed by water and contaminated effluent. A local postman told me that he delivered letters to homes where the muck and dirt was up to the letter boxes. Most of these homes are occupied by old-age pensioners. Island Road in Enniscorthy and the quays on both sides of the River Slaney took the brunt of the floods. This has occurred 16 times since 2000, not to mention the years in between when the people were put on full flood alert with their homes and businesses threatened again and again. I thank the Minister of State for visiting those homes. I am sure he realises the anguish, the torment, the feelings of desperation and the sleepless nights these people have gone through. Generations have faced the same thing over and over again. They have not got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting insurance. They must replace every stick of furniture, including kitchens, fridges, personal belongings and most of their white goods themselves. Some businesses are facing bills of well over €80,000. This has been going on for decades. The people of Enniscorthy and Wexford will no longer put up with what can only be described as wilful neglect. It is only with the luck of God no one was drowned or injured. Thanks and gratitude must go to the units from Slaney Search and Rescue and all the other organisations involved. Planning permission for the Slaney flood relief scheme was turned down because of the freshwater pearl mussel, a fact that is infuriating people. Surely this species can be translocated just like the Dublin Bay oyster. I plead with the Minister of State to act now. Under section 7 of the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, he can approve flood relief works independently of the planning system. Things need to happen and need to happen now. Climate change is not waiting for anybody. As sure as night follows day, flooding will continue and will occur again. The people of Wexford need the Minister of State’s full assurance that he will sort this out. He must rein in the OPW, the relevant Departments and Wexford County Council and get the planning application across the line once and for all and to immediately apply the interim measures. Wexford County Council has completed an interim plan but I understand that it must be agreed on by the Ministers and the OPW. I ask that this be done and be treated as a humanitarian emergency and not be delayed any longer. It is the least the people of Enniscorthy and Wexford deserve after being left unprotected for over 25 years and denied their rights to a proper flood defence scheme.

I thank the Minister of State for being here today. I am here again today to discuss flooding. I have been raising this issue since I was first elected back in 2016. I have gone through four Ministers of State on this issue. Ten years later, the people of my town Midleton are still waiting for the flood relief scheme to be implemented. I acknowledge that the Minister of State visited, as did the former Minister of State, but I am giving him a synopsis of where the people of Midleton, in particular, are, but I am not forgetting the likes of Whitegate, Mogeely, Rathcormac and other areas that were flooded. The failure to start any real work on the overall flood relief scheme planned for the town is one thing but the absence of progress on promised interim flood relief measures is beyond frustrating, especially for many of the residents of Midleton who are still living in fear every time it rains. Many admit to suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression after having their homes flooded. Records dating back as far as the 1880s show Midleton, which is located in a low-lying valley at the junction of the Owenacurra and Dungourney rivers. These have flooded regularly, underlining the long-standing need for a flood relief scheme in east Cork. Another one I raised here was the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, study. It was produced back in 2013. In that CFRAM study, there was hydraulic modelling, and other big fancy words they use when doing these models for predicting floods. It made a prediction. I refer to Storm Babet, the most recent storm and where I live in Midleton. This map shows the Mill Road. The thin blue line is the river. It predicted where the water was, how much water would come down and where it would come out. This was back in 2013. It also predicted that not too far from where my office is, there would be 1.4 m of water. It went up to the fascia board and soffit of a bungalow at the junction. It also outlined preventative measures on how this could be done. We are possibly 16 years talking about this and the council has decided now that it is going to build a bank up beyond Moore's Bridge to stop this water flowing down the Mill Road and hitting Willowbank and Tír Cluain. That still has not been done. The Minister of State, in his opening remarks, spoke about what we would do and how he would do it. I know he said he had 150 flood relief schemes and so on and so forth but for the people of Midleton, east Cork and other areas that have been flooded - and this is not being disrespectful to the Minister of State - that is not the answer they want or need. They want to know why interim measures were not done ten or 15 years ago, and why they are doing these CFRAM flood studies with nothing being acted on. Another one I flagged - I have not seen it - was the voluntary homeowners relocation scheme. Back in 2016, 2017 or 2018, I remember meeting the then Minister and the Minister for Social Protection with a family because their home was absolutely destroyed. There was never a mention of a voluntary homeowners relocation scheme. That family is still paying a mortgage for a three-bedroom semi-detached house that is totally uninhabitable. I will chase the Minister of State up on that one. I would like to know more about that because that family has been absolutely destroyed. I appeal for urgency. I acknowledge the Minister of State's engagement on this but I am relaying what the people of Midleton and surrounding areas are saying. Whatever hoops the Minister of State has to jump through and whatever planning we have to do, in regard to those who are objecting, I think it is time for the hammer to come down and to say "No". The priority is people, their livelihoods and homes and that is what we have to protect.

I thank the Minister of State for being here to listen to the statements. For my part, flooding is something that happens occasionally. It is usually from the sea rather than rivers in my area but it is the impact and aftermath of flooding. The state of the roads in north County Dublin is shocking. They are the kinds of words people use. If you come around by an area like Blake's Cross, you will often see tyres and parts of tyres on the side. Added to that situation, which was already bad, we then had flooding on top of it. It is an area that floods all the time. You could set your watch by it. When there is heavy rain, there is flooding at Blake's Cross. There just does not seem to be any connectedness in regard to what happens after the flooding and once the water recedes. In the recent flooding, we were very lucky. Yes, it blocked roads but it did not get into many homes. I know from talking to Deputy Buckley and others the damage and devastation that it can bring to a community but we are still left dealing with the aftermath of it in one way or another because we are dealing with the fact that the roads are in such poor condition immediately following it. Every single time there is a flood, that means the roads are going to get even worse and there is no mitigation. If there was going to be proper drainage put in place, all of that could be encompassed within a budget to not just drain the roads but also improve the quality of the roads and recognise the damage. Every single time there is flooding, the Minister of State and I both know that the aftermath of that for people in their homes is absolutely devastating but the aftermath of that for people who are driving on the roads, because they have no choice, is also devastating. If you take Brook Lane in Rush, I know in advance when that is going to flood. The residents know in advance that it is going to flood. They might not know how bad it is going to be but they know it is going to flood and it happens every time. This time when it happened, it was particularly bad and there were people, including emergency service workers, who were stuck in their homes, which has a knock-on consequence. What I want to say to the Minister of State today is that when the flood waters recede and you are no longer up to your knees or elbows in the flood, the damage that happens after that also requires attention. It is not just all about making sure the floods recede. We need to look at the national flood forecasting and warning service as well because at least that can give people a little bit of a heads-up. We know rightly that it is a scandal that the millions of euro allocated for the national flood forecasting and warning service over the past eight years remains unspent. That does not make any sense. It does not make any sense to me but it most definitely does not make any sense to people who can tell you that if they have a warning, they will be able to put those systems in place. I would be critical, where it is due, of Fingal County Council but it has always been good in regard to the provision of sandbags and other mitigation measures. That is of no use to people, however, if they do not get the advance warning. On the advance warning, it is very hard to explain to people how the money was allocated and yet, somehow, the Department could not find its way to spend it. People might be able to understand if it was a budgetary matter. They might be able to comprehend it if it was a case of insufficient funds allocated but in regard to the money being allocated and not being spent, that is very hard for me to explain to my constituents when they look at the flood events and they see they cannot use their roads or, as I have said to the Minister of State, when they have to use the roads afterwards amid the damage. The key surely has to be preventing this flood damage but the fact that the State has money at its disposal and millions of euro allocated, and that somehow it is not being spent, does not make any sense. I certainly do not try to explain the actions of this Government - I am beyond doing that - but when you try to tell constituents who are in flood-impacted areas that, yes, it is possible that a system could have been developed but was not developed, that is very hard for them to stomach.

I will start by thanking all the emergency response workers, council teams and other staff who did their very best to help residents affected by the recent flooding incidents. In my own constituency, we had separate incidents of flooding. We had the tidal flood waters in Clontarf. Then there was significant flooding in the northern part of the constituency, in and around Clongriffin. We saw properties and underground car parks flooded. We had roads that were impassable and a number of rivers burst their banks. We also had recent flooding in Fairview, which was due to a burst pipe. In regard to Clontarf, this issue has been ongoing for decades. We had sandbags sitting there for over a decade. There are new temporary barriers in place for the past few months but business owners and residents want a permanent solution and they want it sooner rather than later. We have been told by Dublin City Council that construction on the permanent flood defences will not begin until 2031. If that goes well, it will be completed by 2033. There is no sense of urgency here and this is the area identified as one of the most at risk of flooding in the State. We need to see the flood defences in place. We were told it would take three years before this planning application would be ready to be submitted but this needs to happen much sooner. In regard to Clongriffin, where residents' properties and vehicles were left flooded, the residents themselves were left high and dry in terms of the costs they incurred. Electricity was out for days, so all the food in their fridges and freezers was spoiled. Some residents did get temporary accommodation sorted by the management company, but it meant they were in places as far away as Tyrrelstown. Those either who did not drive or whose vehicles were stuck in the underground car park had to rent cars or get taxis to their workplaces or even bring their kids to school. I urge the Minister of State to make phase 1 of the emergency response payment available to those residents to enable them to recoup some of their immediate costs. With regard to solutions, we need a national flood warning service that is fully up and running. It has been ten years since the Government said it was establishing that service, but the ground conditions are still not being taken into account. We all know that a lot of the flooding is due to high rainfall, and with sodden ground, the excess water has nowhere else to go. Drains were at capacity, rivers were swollen and culverts could not take any more water. A much broader discussion needs to take place. It means not just flood protection measures. It means a proper strategy for rainwater harvesting and storage to reduce run-off during heavy periods of rainfall. It also means natural ways of reducing these impacts, such as planting trees beside rivers rather than constantly clearing them, and stopping the modification and straightening of rivers from their natural flow. All that does is cause more problems because it increases the river’s speed and creates pinch points. This extreme weather is not going away and is likely to become more common. We need solutions in the here and now, like flood defences. We need longer term solutions that look at the overall land use plan and how we can minimise and reduce the risk of these events happening in the future.

This is not the Minister of State's first interaction with me in relation to flooding. I have thanked him for visiting Blackrock and for having conversations with some of the local elected representatives, including me, Councillor Sionainn McCann and a number of others from all parties. It was following what had made its way onto RTÉ, which was the coastal flooding in what is usually a very scenic area of Blackrock. Flooding had also occurred at the same time in Dundalk, where a number of businesses were flooded. In fairness, the positive from the interaction with the Minister of State was that the local authority accepts it needs to ensure it is looking at everything from the point of view of the short-term mitigations that can be made operational. While that might be difficult in Blackrock, the local authority said a number of such measures might be available throughout Dundalk. That needs to happen. The Minister of State has spoken strongly about the need for private property protection. I have already called on Louth County Council to ensure that work is done. Unfortunately, it did not take very long until the arrival of Storm Chandra. I do not even know what we can call the current situation, with the never-ending rain. As someone said, it is probably time to build an ark. We have had flood protection measures. Under the CFRAM scheme, major protection works have been in the offing for County Louth for a considerable time. While we want to see those works in Carlingford, Greenore, Drogheda, Baltray and Ardee, and we know additional work needs to be done in Annagassan - I get that this is not always simple - I will put a certain level of concentration on Dundalk and Blackrock south. We have also seen an element of flooding in areas like the Ardee Road and Mounthamilton, where residents are constantly in fear of flooding any time it rains. I would add my voice to commending those who work in the local authorities and the fire service. In some cases, they literally kept the water from the door - just and no more - and in some cases, they actually chased it out. I have said before and reiterate that we were one major rainfall, one really bad day, away from hundreds of houses being flooded. There is a specific issue in parts of Dundalk. While we need to see the works that are promised by Louth County Council for the River Blackwater, I recognise that what I previously called the “bunfight”, where Louth County Council and the OPW were not sure which had responsibility for the cleaning of the Blackwater, seems to have been sorted, as it should have been. We need to ensure that the Blackwater and the Ramparts area are cleaned. I am not saying that that would deal with every flood situation or every high tide, but at least it would provide some element of capacity in the rivers. If it saves a number of houses, it is absolutely necessary. Actions have been taken by the council to address issues with the Blackwater caused by what it termed over-pumping. It is about ensuring that the council has that pump capacity when necessary so that it can pump during high tides. I could talk about the failure by multiple Governments over many years to deal with infrastructure, although we are dealing with those infrastructural deficits at this point. The local authority has told me, as has the Minister of State, that money is available and that there will be no obstacles if the local authority needs certain things done with regard to those mitigations. We need that to happen. As I said, there is a specific issue in Dundalk, particularly in the part where I live. It applies to everywhere between Saint Alphonsus Road and the Red Barns Road. It is particularly apparent in Cluan Enda, Bay Estate, Blackwater Court - aptly named - Ashbrook and Greenfield Court. For multiple years, if there have been heavy rains, Cluan Enda has had a huge amount of pooling, or perhaps we should call it a river, a sea or a swimming pool. The same was true of certain parts of Bay Estate, particularly Hazelwood Avenue, parts of Cypress Gardens, Willow Dale, Oakvale and Holly Park. Cherryvale, where I live, had some element of pooling, but not to the same degree. As I said, we were only one really heavy rainfall away from having severe issues. The problem is that it is Uisce Éireann infrastructure. It is not good enough. At times, we hear the Minister for housing, Deputy James Browne, giving out about Met Éireann, but it is not good enough for him to say he has no operational control or responsibility in relation to Uisce Éireann. We have promises about CFRAM. We will probably know towards the end of 2026, or at least that is the date given, what exactly the flood protections will look like throughout much of County Louth. We are talking about Blackrock south and Dundalk going for planning in quarter 2 of 2027, around June. We need to make sure that those dates do not fall back. The other dates that we need to make sure do not fall back relate to Uisce Éireann. The fact is that we do not have the necessary capacity in the wastewater system. When we have heavy rains, that water goes directly into the sewage system, which is a joint system. When people are dealing with what looks like heavy rain in certain places, it would not be the healthiest water you could be dealing with. I have seen what has been left behind in houses after the water has dissipated. It is not hard to imagine what that was. Let us just say there would be huge implications from a health point of view. At some level, it is disgraceful that this is happening in Ireland in 2026. We are looking at an upgrade of the Coes Road pumping station. I am told the infrastructure works, which will also take in parts of Blackrock, will start at some point in 2027. Those works in the pumping station itself, however, will not be complete until 2029 and I have actually been told by the council that it is more likely to be 2030. That is frightening. Many of the other pumping stations in Dundalk, while under pressure, can deal with the flow through them, but during heavy rains the Coes Road station cannot. It is dealing with everything coming from those housing estates that I have spoken about, which have all been added to what is very old infrastructure. It is also dealing with industrial units from WuXi right down and it just cannot deal with that. The wastewater treatment plant just beyond that is not due to be updated until 2033. That has a design capacity for a population equivalent of 71,000 and is to be upgraded to a capacity of 120,000. That is down to a change in the rules by the EPA because when the local authority handed it over, it was something like 169,000. Again, we do not have the capacity. We could be looking at houses being flooded with sewage because we do not have adequate infrastructure. It is a matter of short-term mitigations, long-term flood protection and dates that can be brought forward rather than put back, which is what we have seen previously. We must also ensure that Uisce Éireann infrastructure is up to scratch. The onus is on the Government to follow through.

Before I go to the Labour Party slot, I welcome all of our visitors to the Public Gallery, particularly all of the members of Probus in Mallow in County Cork, guests of Deputy Eoghan Kenny. Deputy Nash is next.

I certainly will not attempt to run through the names of local estates and roads the way in which my good friend and colleague Deputy Ó Murchú did in the context of County Louth. I thought that when he was eating in to that additional time, he was going to mention my own street in Drogheda but -----

I left that for you, Deputy Nash.

-----he had the good grace not to and I have the good sense to live on the top of a hill, knowing that there are certain areas that are vulnerable to flooding and flood damage. The experience and topography in our respective towns is quite different. We are in a new era and a new normal, dare I say it, when it comes to flood events. Over the last few years and certainly before 2020, we got used to describing flash events as one-in-100-year rainfall events but the reality of climate change in 2026 is that the kinds of events and experiences we are encountering now are permanent. They are much more frequent, much more damaging and are putting a huge strain on already stressed infrastructure, road networks, flood defences and so on. We can expect more of this. The severity of the storms and the impacts we are experiencing are going to become ever more complicated and we need to do more to adapt, mitigate and manage. That is not to say that we do not need to do more to ensure that we halt, moderate and mitigate the climate change effects that we are experiencing. We need to do that but we know, unfortunately, that when it comes to the performance of this country, we are way behind in terms of meeting our climate targets. That is not an abstract thing but is having a very real impact on the day-to-day experiences of everybody in this country, and we are all in the firing line. According to an article in The Irish Times last weekend, dozens of flood protection works that have been deemed critical to protecting thousands of homes across the country have yet to progress to planning. Some have been in the system for almost a decade. Out of 54 large projects where some work has begun since they were prioritised for development back in 2018, the majority - 31 - are only at preliminary design stage. Some of those are in my own region. The target completion times for many of the projects run well into the 2030s but those who are suffering annual, and now more frequent, deluges simply cannot wait any longer. That said, I believe the Minister of State is genuinely committed to ensuring projects are expedited in the best way possible. The people I represent in County Louth and east Meath are very much in the firing line of this problem and of the tardiness, dare I say it, of the collective national response to this crisis. At this point, I want to join colleagues in putting on the record my appreciation of the outdoor staff, engineers and everybody across the spectrum in the public service in Louth and Meath for their actions in recent times, their preparedness and their professionalism in dealing with the very real problems that householders and business are experiencing. Homes and businesses in Blackrock, with which the Minister of State will be familiar having visited recently, have been particularly badly hit, and areas on the Cooley Peninsula are continually finding themselves quite literally in the eye of the storm. I welcome Louth County Council's commitment to making an application for €1.2 million in additional funding from the Department of Transport to try to cover at least some of the damage caused to roads in County Louth in recent times as a result of recent flooding. I hope that application will be looked upon favourably by the Government when it lands and is being considered. I am really not sure that €1.2 million is going to cover it, though. The problem is not confined to Dundalk and north Louth; severe damage has been caused in the south of the county as well. When we speak to local authority engineers, as we do almost daily, we hear reports of roads being flooded and a growth in the number of potholes over the last period of time. That in itself is a complex issue. Many of the potholes that engineers or contractors wish to fill and resolve are actually full of water and the recent icy conditions in parts of the country have only exacerbated the problems. As physics tells us, when water ingress becomes a problem on roads, damage is done to the tarmac, the tarmac expands and that creates more problems. Hopefully we will get a period of finer weather that will allow contractors to do the work that is necessary. There has been extensive damage to the road network around Termonfeckin, for example, and I tabled a series of parliamentary questions recently in relation to the flood response issue and the need for the OPW to prioritise minor flood mitigation in that area, as well as coastal protection scheme works. I am told that €1.9 million has been allocated for coastal protection works in County Louth across some 26 projects but much more is needed. We also need to see that multifaceted response that we all speak about. The Minister of State will also be familiar with problems in the Baltray area outside of Drogheda and, as Deputy Ó Murchú referenced, in the Annagassan area in mid-Louth. Frankly, the list goes on, but these problems are predictable. The Minister of State visited Blackrock recently. The main street in Blackrock, facing onto the beach, effectively became a kind of canal in recent times, something that I have certainly not experienced in a long time. We know that when rain persists and we have these flooding events, places like Wellington Quay in Drogheda, beside the River Boyne, are very vulnerable indeed. I will make two further points before passing over to my party colleague Deputy O'Donoghue. I have always found the response of the Department of Social Protection to be excellent, in terms of the management of the humanitarian scheme. Members of my own family in east Meath had to benefit from that scheme in recent times in a vulnerable area around Bettystown. The response of the county council, working with the Department of Social Protection to provide basic resources to people who need them to get through difficult periods, has been excellent but we can always improve the planning in that regard, given the permanence of the kinds of problems we are experiencing. I have said time and again over the years in this Chamber, and to successive enterprise Ministers, that we need to put the business support scheme on a statutory basis and the fact that we have not done so is not acceptable. There were plans to do so three or four years ago, when I raised it with the then Minister, Simon Coveney, in response to flooding episodes that caused serious problems in the Cooley Peninsula. It is not sustainable that for each event a new memo has to be brought to Cabinet to provide for a new scheme. I know it is not the Minister of State's direct responsibility but I have no doubt he is engaging on all flood-related matters with all relevant Departments and Ministers. Those kinds of schemes need to be put on a permanent, statutory basis so that they can effectively be taken off the shelf and introduced in short order to address the needs of businesses. I acknowledge increases have been made in the financial schemes available but they need to be put on statutory basis because, back to the earlier point I made, these events are becoming more frequent and permanent. It is a permanent feature of the system. We need permanent statutory responses on the Statute Book in primary legislation to ensure the response is quicker and more effective.

I will add to the issue of ongoing flooding and the wider impacts recent extreme weather events have had across Ireland which are becoming more frequent and more severe as our weather grows increasingly unpredictable. Over the past number of weeks, flooding in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West has wreaked havoc. Homes, roads and local infrastructure have all been badly affected and communities have once again been left dealing with the consequences after the fact. This highlights a serious flaw in how we approach extreme weather. We remain locked in a cycle of crisis management, reacting after the damage is done rather than planning ahead. That approach is no longer fit for purpose. We need to move towards a dedicated national weather and flooding response team tasked with planning, co-ordination and preparedness so that when severe weather hits, a practical and fully resourced policy is already in place and ready to be implemented. I acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of the staff in Fingal County Council who worked around the clock in extremely difficult conditions to support communities during the recent floods. However, they are being asked to do far too much with far too little. I contacted a member of staff before 8 a.m. last Friday and they were already dealing with multiple flooding issues in the Rush and Lusk area. This is not a reflection on the staff but a chronic lack of resources, funding and support provided to our local authorities. Our council workers are stretched to breaking point, responding to increasingly severe weather events without the staffing, funding or infrastructure required to do the job properly. That situation is not sustainable and must now be addressed at a national level. I will also speak about something that might not always make national headlines but has a real and very damaging impact on people’s daily lives, the shocking state of our local roads. The recent flooding has pushed an already fragile situation into crisis. I will give some examples from my constituency of Dublin Fingal West. On Brook Lane in Rush, residents were effectively trapped in their own homes. They could not get out and families were cut off. This is not acceptable in 2026. In Bowhill, conditions were no better. Our local boxing club, a place that provides the community with an opportunity for young people to go to was completely flooded, facilities were damaged and equipment was destroyed with volunteers left to pick up the pieces. Commons Lane in Lusk was cratered like no-man's land. Across Fingal West, many roads were already in poor repair. Years of wear, underinvestment and patchwork fixes have taken their toll but flooding has accelerated that deterioration at an alarming rate. What were potholes are now literal craters - tyre gobblers - tearing through rural roads, damaging cars and creating hazards for other road users. This is not just inconvenient; it is dangerous. Parents driving children to school, carers travelling to vulnerable residents and workers commuting long distances are all navigating roads that are not fit for purpose. In rural parts of Fingal West, the damage to vehicles has become routine. People are paying out of their pockets for repairs caused not through recklessness but through neglect of the infrastructure. Meanwhile, Fingal County Council like other county councils is being placed under increasing pressure. It is expected to maintain an extensive network of approximately 1,340 km of roads with limited and insufficient resources. That is simply not sustainable. No local authority can be asked to stretch funding thin and still deliver the standard of infrastructure our communities need. We need to be more honest about the scale of the challenge. This requires a national policy response that recognises we are facing not a series of isolated incidents but a systemic infrastructure crisis intensified by extreme weather. We need additional ring-fenced funding, technical support, drainage systems and flood mitigation particularly in areas that are now clearly flood prone which may not have been previously. Extreme weather is no longer the exception; it is our new reality. The response must match that reality with forward planning, resilience built into every project, and resources that reflect the scale of the network which varies from county to county. Communities across Dublin Fingal West cannot be left to endure this cycle of flood, damage, patch up and repeat. They deserve safe roads, reliable infrastructure and a Government response that recognises the urgency of this matter. I have no doubt the Minister of State is well aware of this and he will rise to the challenge in this matter.

I thank the Minister of State for being here for this debate. In fairness to him, he is not afraid to roll up his sleeves. He is passionate about trying to address this issue that has impacted so many communities. I too pay tribute to local authority staff and emergency services which have had to deal with these adverse weather events we face with increased regularity. I asked this question of representatives of the Department and Met Éireann when they were before the Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy and they indicated they work on the basis that we will have eight of these types of events every year. It will randomly impact the country. It is something we need to address. Support schemes need to be put on a statutory basis. It cannot be addressed every time we have one of these incidents. Learnings from previous events particularly around community hubs and making generators available are critical and need to be done. Storm Chandra had a particularly profound impact on the Wicklow-Wexford constituency I represent. I know the Minister of State was in Aughrim, County Wicklow, where the flooding was caused by water coming down from higher ground and running through the houses. Some of that may be about working with nature and adapting forestry practices but I am sure the Minister of State would join me in paying tribute to the work of Councillor Pat Kennedy and Aughrim Tidy Towns who were on the ground. It brought out in many ways the best in people to be able to respond to the crisis. Bunclody faced the first serious flooding in 60 years when the Slaney burst its banks. It was horrific visiting some of the homes and business impacted there. The concerns when I met Councillor Barbara-Anne Murphy and local residents were that a sufficient plan was not in place. The big challenge there for a lot of residents is while many had flood insurance until now, they will not get it again. We need to look at some sort of State guarantees until a permanent flood defence system is put in place in these communities. I would be grateful to hear the Minister's views on that. In the case of Castletown in north Wexford, on more than one occasion every year the River Ahare bursts its banks, making a road impassable. It is an issue Councillor Joe Sullivan has been raising regularly in terms of how to address this challenge. For this coastal community, it is cut off in many ways and people have to drive the long way round because the Ahare bursts its banks any time there is heavy rain. Coastal erosion is another huge issue. I am fortunate to represent a constituency that has arguably some of the finest beaches in the country, running from Brittas Bay in Wicklow down as far as Morriscastle in Wexford. Every time there is an adverse weather event, we see parts of our coast lost to the sea. On this occasion in the floods, the Rosslare rail line was closed again, not that it is a great service anyway. Part of it closed again as a result of the flooding. The knock-on impact was more cars travelling on the M11 but because there was flooding on the M11, counties Wicklow and Wexford were in many ways cut off by the impact. I would like to raise, as colleagues have raised, the impact these events have had on our roads, in particular rural roads. Many of the roads, which were in pretty poor condition, have been left impassable as a result of weather conditions and flooding that has happened. These include in areas around Woodenbridge, Shillelagh and Arklow, which the Minister of State is familiar with, but equally around places like Johnstown in north Wexford and crossing between the Wexford and Wicklow border. For Bearna Chlé National School, parents now have to travel the long way around to avoid craters that traverse the entire road. There is an application coming in quite soon from local authorities. It is critical that we provide sufficient funding. I am asking for it on behalf of Wicklow County Council and Wexford County Council to be able to address the problems with our roads as a result of these weather conditions.

I welcome the statements. I empathise with the many individuals, men, women, children, families and business owners who have been left absolutely devastated once again by the horrific impact of flooding. My constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny was hit badly again. I thank the local authorities in the area and roads crew in both Carlow and Kilkenny and the fire service for the incredible work that they did. Even up until today, they are still dealing with the fallout and the damage from the floods regarding the roads and the road repairs. It truly was a significant incident that occurred there in past couple of weeks. The Minister of State is 100% behind this, but the Government has to deliver big progress on flood relief schemes and flood warning systems. The past couple of weeks have seen huge flooding and significant flooding in some areas, including the flooding of homes and businesses. I am talking about places such as Graiguenamanagh, Thomastown, Inistioge, Freshford, Piltown and Ballyhale to name six in the Kilkenny side of my constituency that have been affected along with places like Clonegal in Carlow, which also have been decimated with flooding. Last week, the Taoiseach and Ministers met to consider the State's response to the extreme weather events. It was confirmed that local authorities would be given the authority to commence road repairs. The importance of these contingency funds has been mentioned by previous speakers. There are roads down my way and the Ceann Comhairle would be familiar with down in Drummond, Glynn, Ballyglisheen, Newtown and Dungarvan over to Knockroe, Clashganny and Inch. Driving on some of these roads is like being in a boneshaker. Vehicles are rattling on them. It is a pothole-ridden nightmare. Funding needs to be made available. I welcome the fact that funding is going to be made available. I would like to see the speed of which this funding can be made available to local authorities increase. The roads funding announcement was fantastic news during the week with over €1.5 billion nationally. We did well in my constituency with over €40 million, but we need this additional funding to sort out the serious damage that was done to roads during the past couple of weeks in addition to the funding that was recently announced. Graiguenamanagh Tinnahinch flood relief scheme is in tranche 1. It is progressing, albeit it has been very slow to progress the scheme. Funding was announced in 2018. Consultants were appointed in December 2020. It only managed to go to planning in December 2025. That is an awful long time to go from appointing design consultants to putting in for planning. I implore the Minister of State to try to speed up the planning process to get these schemes approved. It took five years to get to that stage. I know there are environmental studies to be done, and I get all of that. Human life is more important than fish life. Human life is more important than a snail's life. We can have all studies in the world, but when we sit down with somebody whose home has been ravaged by water. While the rain might have subsided, the smell and the damage lasts for weeks and weeks. The Minister of State knows that because he very kindly came down to my own hometown of Graiguenamanagh and he saw the damage that has been caused first hand. The people affected are still dealing with that today. I acknowledge and welcome the funding and humanitarian aid that a lot of people are applying for. The fact that it was increased as well is a positive step. However, we need to make sure that we put flood defences in place that mean these issues are not going to happen again. The Graiguenamanagh flood relief scheme is with An Coimisiún Pleanála. I ask the Minister of State to try his best to speed that up and pull out whatever stops he needs to do to get this scheme over the line so that construction can start and we can get the flood relief scheme in place to sort that issue out. A big challenge I have if I look at the OPW and Kilkenny, we have two people appointed by Kilkenny County Council to deal specifically with flood relief schemes. I would love to see a situation where schemes can run parallel. For example, we have Graiguenamanagh in tranche 1. We have six schemes in total identified in Kilkenny but they are not running concurrently. I understand that there is a financial commitment required in terms of the capital infrastructure, but surely there is a way we can progress these schemes with the consultation part and the studies part. This is not to get to the construction or to finality but to get them going meaning that when the funding is there these projects can start straightaway. For example, Thomastown is stuck in a rut. It is not going to get sorted any time soon. These schemes take a while. I ask the Minister of State to consider starting to get the ball rolling on these schemes in terms of the consultation piece to get them to a stage where they are ready to go to tender. He is familiar with Inistioge. He visited it in 2018 while he was Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW. The hurling pitch in Inistioge and the village once again was flooded along with Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh. I visited Inistioge and I spoke with a lot of the locals. I looked at the hurling pitch. It was like looking out into the Irish Sea. The water was up nearly as far as the crossbars. We cannot have situations where this continues and continues. The Minister of State's heart is in the right place. He is doing everything he can, but we need to see speed and delivery on these schemes. The people, families, homes and businesses who are affected by flood relief are sick and devastated. They are living in fear. Every single time there is a shower of rain coming or a couple of days of rain they are thinking, "Oh my God, are we going to get flooded this time?" I want to pay tribute again to both local authorities in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny for the tremendous work they did providing sandbags, making sure that people were looked after, helping people evacuate their homes and helping them to save as much furniture and so on as they could. Funding constraints are not the biggest problem here. The Minister of State has strongly come out pointing out that there is €1.3 billion put aside for flood relief schemes until 2030. The money is there. We just need to see a little bit more speed. I acknowledge that there are processes that need be followed but we need speed and urgency. We need to bypass some of the stuff because human life is more important than fish life. There has been huge community engagement over the past number of years on some of these schemes. I implore the Minister of State to ensure these schemes to run concurrently and to get to a stage. We can worry about the specific funding and allocation once we get approval. Let us get these schemes agreed, designed and ready to go, then we can look for the funding. There is a lot of co-ordination among different agencies required but let us start the ball rolling now and let us not be in a situation in a couple of years where we are back here. Addressing these issues requires a multifaceted approach that includes sustainable development practices, adequate funding for infrastructure, active community engagement and effective public awareness campaigns. However, these schemes are so important. These schemes are giving hope to people in Carlow, Kilkenny, Thomastown, Inistioge, Graiguenamanagh, Ballyhale, Piltown and Freshford, to name just a few. We are looking for the Minister of State's support to get these over the line as quickly as possible.

I acknowledge the very serious flood issues in Carlow. I visited a number of the businesses and households there. Of course, it is the same everywhere else that is affected by flooding. There is devastation after the flood. There is the attempt on more than one occasion to rebuild a life and a home. They are fed up of waiting for the schemes that have been talked about by us in here for years and years. In Carlow, for example, when some of the businesses and residents applied for support, it was too slow in being delivered. Regarding farmers losing livestock, one man lost 14 sheep in the flood. He is having difficulty being included. He is not included in the Red Cross or the business fund. I have made a case to the Minister. He and anyone else who lost their stock should be looked after. After all, it is a business that runs on a small margin. They need the money quickly to replace the stock and get back into business. I went through the houses in Inistioge yesterday. I was shocked when I drove through Inistioge during the flood prior to the most recent one. The water was literally running over the crossbar on the GAA pitch. After that, I saw the devastation in the homes. I do not know how they tolerated it. I listened to the cases of the people living right beside the waterfront in Graiguenamanagh. Older people were desperately trying to get the money to get their homes back in order. I ask that in each and every scheme, for those who are in the system and those waiting to go into it, the Minister of State insists that Government pull out all of the stops and address all of the obstacles preventing the schemes from getting to the point of construction. I have heard the arguments about nature and so on but, when the scheme in Kilkenny city was being finished before 2005, I saw the trucks drive up and down the riverbed. I saw that scheme finished. It is an excellent scheme and one that is worth looking at.

I thank the Minister of State for his recent visit to Donegal and for meeting families who are affected face to face. I really appreciated that. We missed the Minister of State when he was out of the Dáil. I will be straight about that. I said it in front of the residents when we were in Donegal. He really cares about this issue. He has experienced it in his own community and seen it at first hand. We missed him. I am going to go back to 2017. There is always flooding at certain points. Unfortunately, some very poor planning decisions were made in the past and houses were built on flood plains all across the country. That is exactly the case in the worst areas. Terrible planning decisions were made, houses were built on flood plains and we are left with the repercussions. The Minister of State came up and saw what happened in August 2017 at first hand. It was absolutely devastating. The damage done in my home peninsula of Inishowen and into east Donegal was shocking. It was a wake-up call. It is interesting. I have always worked hard as a public representative but I never put in a shift like I did in the weeks after that. I was working from literally first thing in the morning until last thing at night trying to put my arm around the community and deal with government, including local government, to try to get everything done to address families' flooding issues and the bridges, parks and football pitches that had to be repaired. It was unbelievable. I always think of that when I see other communities flooded. I have been there. I have seen it and understand it. That is why we missed the Minister of State. If he had been there during that period, we would have been on schedule now. He would have shepherded it over the line. I have no criticism of him whatsoever but the time the system takes is just too long and the interim measures that should be put in place just are not there. For the remainder of my time, I will focus on Burnfoot. As the Minister of State knows, Burnfoot is just a wee village in the south of Inishowen, not far from Derry city. Burnfoot always flooded. The houses in question were on a flood plain. Everybody knows that there are council houses and private houses that should never have been built where they were built. For God's sake, the name of the village in Irish means "the foot of the river". Before the Minister of State's time, the OPW and the then Minister did not agree to fund works. They said it would not have been economically viable. That was a mistake. The Minister of State granted funding for it and rectified the issue. However, as he has seen himself, the problem is that eight families had to leave their homes, which were council houses. Some of those families were interviewed for the Irish Times in recent days. I spoke to some of them afterwards. He met Kathleen Molloy, a fine woman and a fine spokesperson for these families. I do not think Kathleen will ever be back in her house. It is just so sad. Those families lost that connection. Kathleen is still in the local area but a lot of them lost that connection and will never go back. Somebody recently said that, when the floods come in, the media and everybody else focus on it, but, when the waters recede, so does the media attention and focus. The Minister of State is now back in the role and travelling the country. We really need to demand more of our local authorities and of the systems, including the OPW. We must drive it on as much as we can and work together with other agencies. We cannot leave people in despair for years and years. My colleague Deputy John Brady introduced a Bill on flood insurance. That should be looked at again. It might give people a degree of protection. As the Minister of State said when he was in Donegal, his job is to try to protect communities from floods and to build flood defences. There are wider issues around insurance, however. That would give people comfort. We need to look at the gaps that are lengthening the time it takes to deliver these flood defences. We need to make sure that the media attention that is on these areas for a few days never comes off as part of a drive to get things done. We need to ask local authorities all across the country to do better, working in partnership all across the country. I again thank the Minister of State.

I pay tribute to all of the workers in local authorities and emergency services for everything they have done. On Friday last, the banks of the Mayne river burst causing absolute devastation for residents living in apartments on Marrsfield Avenue, Clongriffin. Residents were left without electricity and the lifts were put out of action, leaving a disabled person who uses a wheelchair effectively cut off from the rest of the community. The flooding of an underground car park left several cars completely destroyed. This has had a devastating impact on livelihoods, including those of a number of people who drive professionally for a living, including taxi drivers. People in these apartments are paying €2,000 a month in rent for one-bed apartments. They simply cannot afford to lose their income or livelihoods. The emergency response payment must be made available to the residents of these Marrsfield Avenue apartments. Are the residents of these apartments able to apply for this emergency payment?

Yes.

I thank the Minister of State for that confirmation. It is very useful because there was no clarity on that. I appreciate that confirmation. These apartments were built right next to the Mayne river. Má chaithfimid súil siar, if we look back, there is a long history of flooding associated with that river. In June 1993, homes in Balgriffin, very close to the apartments that were just flooded, were badly flooded resulting in residents having to leave their home for two months. More than 30 years ago, in 1993, a resident affected by these floods said "The Water Table level in the area is extremely high, the ground having already absorbed as much water as it can." Downstream, at the Baldoyle Estuary, homes were badly flooded on 1 February 2002, when the banks of the Mayne river burst. When homes were flooded in 1993 and 2002, this was a rural community on the edge of Dublin city and there were very few homes in the area. Since then, thousands of homes have been built in the area. In recognition of the flood risk posed, there are no buildings directly adjacent to the Mayne river at several locations. The decision made by Dublin City Council many years ago to grant planning permission for apartments with an underground car park right next to a river with a history of flooding was grossly irresponsible. The flood map for the area shows that lands close by are prone to flooding. The maps for the land the apartments were built on do not show the same flood risk. I assume this is because the land is slightly higher. However, the apartments were built on a narrow strip of land right next to a river with a history of bursting its banks, right next to lands that flood and right next to homes that had previously flooded in an area where a flood relief scheme is needed but has never been delivered. Excavating and digging down to put in an underground car park at this location could only ever lead to one outcome. The result has been devastating for residents who have their livelihoods destroyed. In 2028, the Minister of State announced that there would be a flood risk management plan for the Liffey and Dublin Bay river basin. This included the assessment of a number of areas, including Balgriffin. In 2020, when asked about the flood risk assessment for the Balgriffin area, the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath, stated in a written reply: "It is understood that housing development in the area has likely altered the hydraulic conditions on site and/or resolved the flooding issue identified in FEM FRAMS." He went on to say that this was to be reviewed. Six years later, we are still waiting on the OPW to produce revised flood maps for the area. The serious flooding of the apartments at Marrsfield shows, unfortunately, that the OPW got this completely wrong when it said it appeared the flooding issue had been resolved in the area. In a written response issued to me today by the senior Minister about the flooding at Marrsfield in Clongriffin, he and the OPW do not even know who the relevant local authority is. They get this basic fact completely wrong. The suggestion from the senior Minister that Fingal County Council should apply for funding to carry out flood protection works for apartments in the jurisdiction of Dublin City Council, where Fingal County Council has no legal authority or responsibility, shows that the OPW and the senior Minister, in issuing this reply, are not in command of even the most basic facts and pieces of information. It is abundantly clear that there needs to be emergency flood relief works to protect these residents and a proper flood relief scheme to address the flood events that have taken place in the area over many decades. This must include protecting the apartments. Is mian liom a rá go bhfuil an méid a tharla uafásach. Is drochscéal é. Tá sé uafásach ar fad. Níor cuireadh tús ach le 10 scéim as 150 - ten schemes out of 150. There is a need, as others have said, to progress these much faster and with urgency. Residents need timelines. Cad atá á dhéanamh ag an Aire Stáit chun é seo a shocrú? Níl aon fhógra. Ní foláir dúinn gníomhú anois. Caithfidh muid gníomhú go práinneach. Níl aon rogha eile ann. Ní foláir don Aire Stáit agus don Rialtas araon éisteacht agus gníomhú. I urge the Minister of State to address these issues.

I extend my solidarity to the people in my constituency of Dublin Rathdown who have been impacted by Storm Chandra and to everyone across the country who has been impacted by Strom Chandra and other recent weather events. Locally we saw incredible footage of damaged areas like Nutgrove Avenue and Enniskerry Road. I acknowledge the incredible work of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, not only the front-line workers who responded swiftly in the early hours of 25 January but also all the backroom workers who responded to over 500 calls. When the council met on 9 February to review responses to the storm, a number of productive measures were suggested, including the installation of additional cameras in areas of the river network, the expansion of the rain gauge network to include higher areas such as Three Rock and the improvement of drainage systems in areas like Loreto Park. These are all welcome suggestions but they reflect an individual council approach to a State-wide collective problem. The aftermath of Storm Chandra has exposed the hard truth that in an age of rapid climate change, our infrastructure and communication methods are failing. This is not something that individual councils and isolated improvements can fix; it is a responsibility which sits squarely on the shoulders of the Government. In 2024, the Cookstown Lane social housing development was opened in Kilternan. All 22 homes on the estate were filled with families who had been on the social housing waiting list. In the aftermath of Storm Chandra, the estate was filled with water. It has been ruined, flooded by the Loughlinstown river. Those same families have been uprooted, with most unable to return for several months. No matter how strong local council efforts to drain the area and help residents may be, they cannot meaningfully reduce the damage in situations like this. A concern repeated throughout the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council meeting was the inability to swiftly communicate with residents about the dangers of the storm. This issue has been pertinent to other extreme weather incidents across the country, including Storm Éowyn last year. It is something successive governments have been warned about for years. In 2018, the European electronic communications code made it mandatory for all member states of the European Union to deploy a public warning system by June 2022 using telephone networks to alert everyone located in a specific area of an ongoing crisis or upcoming disaster. That deadline was nearly four years ago but, if I am correct, we still have not launched a tender for such a system. We remain one of the few EU member states without a comprehensive public warning communication system, yet our exposure to extreme weather is set to increase in the coming years. The Government must recognise that Storm Chandra should not be treated as an isolated phenomenon, but as a real part of our new weather pattern. Proactive steps must be taken to ensure extreme weather is treated with a co-ordinated, holistic and State-wide communication approach from the Government and that burdens are not placed on under-resourced individual councils.

I extend my sincere sympathy to everybody who has experienced flooding in the past few weeks and even going back months. In my constituency, Ballsbridge, Rathfarnham, Terenure and many communities and houses were affected by the bursting of the banks of the Dodder. It was particularly devastating for those people and families. I have seen the devastation that flooding causes to people's homes and livelihoods. It can be an extremely traumatic event for people, so they have my deepest sympathy in this respect. On average, it rains approximately every other day in this country. Some parts of the country, like Dublin, are a little drier than others. The years are getting wetter with the advent of climate change. There is no better example than our most recent January, which was one of the highest rainfall months on record. This has devastating impacts on homes and livelihoods across the country and in my constituency of Dublin Bay South. Our responses to climate change need to take a variety of forms. Unfortunately, it is likely that we will have to adapt. Nature will react, as it always does, but I have severe concerns that our Government is far behind. Nature-based solutions are often not even remotely a part of the response. We have chronic issues in sewerage and drainage capacity. Often, storm drain systems are interconnected with sewerage systems and result in overflows into our waterways, as in my constituency at Sandymount Strand, which I have raised several times. The ownership of the water systems is often confused between Uisce Éireann, the local authority and private owners. When I was campaigning in the local elections two years ago, people at so many doors I knocked on reported flooding issues in their back gardens that I noticed a pattern of poor drainage around the River Poddle, indicating an increased flooding risk. I raised that with Dublin City Council and it seemed like everybody was passing the parcel on the issue. At the general election, a similar pattern seemed to emerge around Ringsend Park. Furthermore, there is only one flood insurance provider available in Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount and Merrion in my constituency, as I have raised several times, including in the last week. The breadth of issues with water infrastructure and flood prevention, mitigation, management and recovery are breathtaking in a country known for its rain. More breathtaking is that these issues of drainage, sewerage systems, water delivery, flood defences and mitigation are solved problems. In fact, they have been solved for millennia all around the world, yet for some reason they seem to be consistently beyond this Government.

I am sharing time with my colleague, Deputy O'Connell, on the important issue of flooding. I represent the constituency of Cork East and have the honour and privilege to do so in Dáil Éireann. It is well known that Storm Babet in October 2023 did unmerciful damage to a huge number of homes and businesses across the constituency. Over 800 homes and premises were badly damaged. Many people's homes were destroyed and needed very significant reconstruction works. Housing estates were overrun by flood water in the town of Midleton and many other areas of east Cork including Rathcormac, Mogeely, the village of Killeagh and Castlemartyr. It also affected places in Ladysbridge and many one-off rural locations around that area. To put it in perspective for the Minister of State, in the 200 years of recorded history in my home village of Killeagh, there was no record of flooding taking place until October 2023. I concur with Deputy Hayes's comments. We are living in times when the climate is changing. These events, unfortunately, will become more common. Killeagh has been made famous by the Kingfishr song, which mentions "the woods of Glenbower". One thing that personally hit me was walking those woods after the flooding took place and seeing bridges washed away and the landscape damaged through landslides and other physical changes. It is the first time in my living memory that I recall any event causing such damage and destruction. The sad reality of water is that it gets in everywhere. It does irreversible damage and requires very substantial repair works at huge cost. I will recap the public infrastructure cost of Storm Babet to the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, who is in the Chamber. It was in and around the region of €60 million to €80 million when you factor in the community hospital in Midleton, the community Garda station, other public infrastructure, roads, bridges and things that were washed away and destroyed and needed subsequent reconstruction. The impact it had on families and people - human beings - in the constituency was absolutely devastating. I want to provide feedback to colleagues in the House. I am anxious for us to do everything we can, in the political system, as the public looks on. On this side of the Chamber there are the back benches, where Government-supporting Deputies sit, and the Minister of State's benches, where members of the Government sit. I am relaying the views and the frustration of the people of east Cork. They do not care about planning processes, Part 8 schemes or Arterial Drainage Acts. They want to see progress as quickly as possible so that their family homes are as safe as they can be. They want us to do all we can in respect of that. I want to reflect on that, which I think is also important to do. From my engagement and experience with Cork County Council, I think it has been doing as much as it physically can in respect of advancing the individual property protection scheme. My understanding, now that over 700 applications have been assessed, is that the installation of that property protection scheme is ongoing and is happening. There are a few things I want to report back. If there is future ministerial engagement from the Taoiseach or a Minister, the TDs in the constituency need to get sufficient notice that it is happening. This is necessary to make sure that people affected by flooding get an opportunity for dialogue and engagement. That has been a point of particular frustration to me. I have not been given sufficient notice or opportunities to feed in on programmes when Ministers have come to visit. In fact, this was the case when the Taoiseach visited. I relayed that to him subsequently. It caused frustration in the community. It is important to ensure we keep that collegiality in terms of what we are all seeking, which is solution-focused. The advancement of the main Midleton flood relief scheme is no easy undertaking because we are talking about tidal flooding, surface flooding and fluvial river flooding. There is a merging of three individual issues that are causing Midleton to become very prone to flooding at a time when we are adapting to the changing climate. I described the flooding that happened in 2023 as biblical. I really hope, in all sincerity, that this never occurs again as long as I live, but we cannot plan on that basis. We have to plan on the basis of what has happened to make sure we do what we can to protect the residents in that area. We must do everything we physically can. I am sad to say to the Minister of State, in the politest way possible, that the tranche 2 schemes that are stuck in the Department for which he has responsibility are a little bit of a joke. I am fed up with trying to explain to people, particularly in Castlemartyr, why this continues to be the case when it comes to advancing the tranche 2 works that need to be done on the River Kiltha, and further up in Mogeely as well. We are trying to map solutions for people in those areas. I am conscious that anything that is done in Castlemartyr can have a knock-on impact on the village of Ladysbridge, which is further down. We need to see a better system where the OPW gets the funding. If it is the case that the Minister of State needs help, he should tell us and we can work together to try to make that happen. Ireland is home to the European headquarters of many of the largest multinational companies in the social media and tech space. The world HQ of Meta, or Facebook as people would know it, is in Ballsbridge, with over 5,000 people working there. I am amazed that we still do not have a national emergency system where people get a text. I have been abroad in countries where text alerts have come in due to severe weather. An automatic notification is sent to people's phones to tell them to be alert. Pushing that burden onto local authorities is not fair. That is something the Government should look at. I genuinely feel it could easily be sorted in a couple of months. It has been done in other countries with great ease. We have all of the assets here to make that happen. Giving people time to prepare is important. I know it is horrible to say it but if it occurs again while people are working in their places of employment or away from their homes, at least they would have some chance to get back to where they live to get their valuables and do something. The Minister of State knows what happened in Midleton in 2023 during Storm Babet. I was told that in one case, hot meals were floating around on trays in a community healthcare space on that occasion. That is how quick it happened. People were in the hairdressers getting their hair done to find floodwater coming in under their feet. We need to see a better solution that includes having a proper emergency system in place. My time is coming to an end. As a TD, I am doing everything I can with the good faith of my Opposition and Government colleagues in the constituency. We want to make sure this happens. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, to do everything he can to help and support us to achieve that. I know that what happened in Wexford was very regrettable, but what happened in east Cork a couple of short years ago was considerably worse. I do not want the people there to be forgotten about.

As the Minister of State has been hearing, the rainfall we have had in recent weeks - it was raining when I was coming in here today, so we may not be past it yet - has caused considerable damage to homes and businesses, including in my constituency of Dublin Rathdown. This intense rain flooded areas including Clonskeagh, Nutgrove, Benildus Avenue, Aiken Village in Stepaside and Cookstown Lane in Kilternan. The local wastewater systems were completely overrun. Those whose homes had not been damaged by the floods found themselves caught in gridlocked traffic, blocked roads and public transport cancellations. We all know it rains a lot in Ireland. We accept that, but we cannot accept allowing our city to come to a grinding halt every time there is heavy rain, no matter how unusual it is. Unfortunately, as several other people have said here today, it is not unusual anymore. Met Éireann is repeatedly warning us that due to climate change, storms and intense bursts of heavy rain are going to become the norm. Our Departments, State agencies and local authorities need to work together to figure out how to improve our flood defences now so that we are not all back here again next year having the same conversation. Two weeks ago, I visited homes and businesses in Kilternan. They have already started to repair and rebuild after the heaviest rains have subsided. I spoke with the builders the day I visited and they told me they are working 12 hours a day to repair those homes to allow the families to come back. It was raining very heavily on that day as well. They are working really hard. The builders and the families are also frustrated because they are rebuilding what they had just built in the first place. These were homes in Cookstown Lane that people had only moved into in the last year. They had only decorated them in the last few months. Their frustration is accentuated by the concern that they could end up doing all of this again next winter if we do not have mitigation systems in place. I acknowledge that the Government has done a lot to try to prepare for flooding. I particularly praise the Minister of State for increasing the maximum funding for a minor flood mitigation works project from €750,000 to €2 million last year. It is good to make the funding available, but money alone will not get the solutions in place without having boots on the ground and getting the works done. I was very disappointed to discover that my own local authority, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, has had just six successful minor works applications in the last ten years. This is despite the fact that many areas only escaped flooding this time because the most intense rain fell on other areas just a couple of kilometres away. It was just luck this time round. Areas such as Stillorgan and Kilmacud are recognised flood risks. I know there have been multiple reports both to Uisce Éireann and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Even with normal rainfall levels, wastewater systems have overrun on those roads and we have had water spilling out. This a very real public health risk and is doing untold damage, repeatedly, to the local environment. I know other colleagues have spoken about the unacceptable amounts of wastewater flowing into the Irish Sea after periods of heavy rain. These are localised issues, but they are feeding into the wider issue as well. Are the eligibility criteria for the minor works scheme too restrictive, given that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has had just six successful project applications in ten years? I ask the Minister of State to review the details of the scheme. Maybe he could engage with the various authorities and relevant State agencies, which are now reviewing what they can do over the next year to try to alleviate some of these things, and see if some funding could be made available to do that. We need to develop, support and implement local flood mitigation systems. We need to look at creative solutions. We need to look at our parks, parklands and playing pitches for water attenuation schemes because these areas are becoming quite built up. My constituency of Dublin Rathdown is an area of high house building, which is what we need, but we are losing many potential water absorption areas. In conjunction with installing these flood mitigation projects, our local authorities must be increasingly conscious of the disruption that construction works cause to our natural water tables and water run-off areas. As I have said, some areas are already vulnerable to flooding but with these new developments under way, we should take a thorough look at how we can protect our new developments and prevent them from becoming vulnerable to more flooding in extreme weather conditions. We need to put in these safeguards now, as we are doing this building, so we can stop these new communities from becoming the next Cookstown Lane over the next few months. As I said, I have no desire to be standing here in a year's time talking the same talk about flooded homes, damaged businesses and communities brought to a standstill by heavy rains. Likewise, I am sure the Minister of State has no desire to listen to me do so. The Government has rightly placed a very high priority on our infrastructure. Robust flood defence systems are an integral part of our national infrastructure. As we saw all too well in the past few weeks, if our flood mitigation systems fail, so too does much of our vital infrastructure. That includes our housing and transport systems.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important matter. Doris, Gareth, Dennis, Alex, Barra, Eunice, Ciarán, Ashley, Éowyn and Chandra were some of the fiercest storms to batter our country in the past ten years. They brought strong winds, rain and flooding, and left a trail of destruction behind them. In light of recent severe weather events, and the flooding we have again witnessed across the country, particularly in my county of Laois, will the Government develop and implement a national river management strategy to mitigate the impact of future extreme weather events? In recent months, communities have experienced devastating flooding with homes damaged, businesses disrupted, farmland rendered unusable and families left dealing with uncertainty, stress and significant financial loss. Portarlington experienced major flooding events in 2008, 2017 and 2020. A detailed engineering assessment was announced in August 2020 to identify flood alleviation measures and prepare design documentation. However, progress since then has been far too slow. Residents and business owners are increasingly frustrated. Communities living with constant flood risk cannot continue to endure delay after delay. Last weekend, Botley Lane in Portarlington was flooded yet again, a situation that has become all too familiar. I welcome recent indications that flood defence schemes are to be treated as critical infrastructure under upcoming emergency planning legislation. The Portarlington flood relief scheme must be included in any fast-track process. In Mountmellick, areas such as Manor Road continue to flood in times of heavy rainfall. I welcome confirmation that its flood relief scheme, with a budget of €20.8 million, has progressed to planning and construction will begin in early 2027. Residents of Mountmellick have waited many years for progress since the significant flooding of November 2017. There is genuine fear every time heavy rain is forecast. Elsewhere across the county, flooding concerns have also been raised. A pitch at The Rock GAA club, which I hope the Minister of State will have an opportunity to visit when he comes to County Laois, is completely waterlogged and flooded over. Hard work, on a community and voluntary basis, went into maintaining and getting those pitches to where they are today. The club adjoins a river, which is the reason this flooding is taking place. Local examples illustrate a broader national issue. At present, responsibility for flood mitigation, river maintenance and drainage is spread across multiple agencies, including the OPW and local authorities. Despite the good work being done under the existing capital programme, the system remains fragmented. Rivers do not respect county boundaries. Actions taken or not taken upstream can have serious consequences downstream. Issues such as siltation, vegetation management, land use change, outdated drainage infrastructure and inadequate maintenance have all made a contribution to the flood risk. Too often, these issues are dealt with in a piecemeal way rather than through integrated catchment-wide planning. Given the increasing financial cost to families, businesses, landowners and the Exchequer, the time has come for a national river management strategy. A national river management strategy would provide three clear pathways: a long-term framework for catchment-based planning; a clear prioritisation of investment; and structured interagency co-operation. It would ensure that flood mitigation funding delivers maximum value for money, reduces duplication and integrates nature-based solutions alongside traditional engineering works. A national approach would provide certainty. It would allow local authorities and communities to plan proactively. We cannot continue to lurch from one flood event to the next and announce schemes after each crisis, without embedding them into a broader strategic framework. I urge the Minister of State to commit to developing a national river management strategy that integrates existing flood relief programmes, accelerates delivery, strengthens governance and funding mechanisms, and uses modern tools for river basin management. Communities like Portarlington, Clonaslee, Rosenallis, Mountmellick and others across County Laois deserve clarity. They deserve progress and they deserve to know that the Government is moving beyond reactive responses towards a co-ordinated, strategic and future-focused approach. Flooding is an issue of growing urgency. The financial, social and emotional costs are simply too high to ignore. We need a system that works, one where river management is co-ordinated, consistent and grounded in long-term planning rather than crisis response. Will the Minister of State, in his own good time while on the public media, explain something that people raise with me on a continuous basis, day in, day out, no matter where I travel? In my hometown of Portlaoise, from where the River Triogue takes all our water out of the capital town of the county to Mountrath, Clonaslee, Rosenallis and Abbeyleix, and everywhere in every corner of Laois, people are talking to me. The talk the whole time, especially among the older people in the community, is that I raise in the Dáil with the Minister of State why we cannot go in to manage and clean the rivers, as was done 40, 50, 60 and 70 years ago. People on the canals can still remember - the few people we have who are over 90 years of age - when the canals were dammed and cleaned all those years ago. They ask the same thing, which is to know, working with everybody on a river management basis, that surely some form of cleaning can take place in the river. I am only saying to the Minister of State what has been said to me on a daily basis. One old lady said to me the other day that she is 88 years of age and cleans the shore in her yard every three or four weeks because if she does not, it fills up with silt and the water runs all over the yard right up to her door. These are people who have lived many years and know the facts about having to clean something and ensuring there is depth enough in our rivers, managed right, that allows us to ensure the water does not overflow the banks and does not flood people. Surely, we must act and act immediately when people's homes are flooded. I acknowledge that the Minister of State has done more work on this. It was many years ago when I saw him on national TV working on behalf of the people of Athlone who were completely flooded. I saw him getting out of a rubber dinghy when he was helping people to move from one area to another. The Minister of State has walked the walk and I am not saying he is not talking the talk. I acknowledge we have a good person to walk the walk for us now because he knows at first hand the devastation. People whose homes have never been flooded believe flooding is like a sink overflowing in the kitchen, as experienced by most people, or a washing machine breaking down, with water coming out on the floor. Flooding is a different animal altogether, in that the devastation can be evident in the house for years afterwards. It is a matter of what comes with the water and what is left over when it is cleaned out with mops and buckets. That must take priority over everything else for those affected. Every winter, there is fear of flooding owing to rainfall. Flooding is devastating for those who live in flood-risk zones. We often hear that we need to be sure about where we buy or build a house. We should remember that there are people living in second-, third- and fourth-generation houses that were never flooded until now. This is where the huge problem is arising. We can talk about climate change but in parallel we need to ensure our natural infrastructure is maintained properly. I remember being a very young councillor in my town, Portlaoise. I acknowledge the role of local authorities. I can speak only about my own one, in County Laois. I have been dealing with it for years and years. Sandbags were always available and councillors could pick them up and deliver them. I am sure the Minister of State did so himself in his time. I acknowledge that the councils were always very proactive. What is more important is that we work together to ensure we do not experience this devastation again. I named all the storms in my opening address. Every time they happened, there were serious repercussions for everybody. After each one, we were talking as we are talking now. If we are prepared to put huge amounts towards flood barriers, we can also work in parallel by ensuring proper management where water flows out. No matter what you do, water still has to travel the one line out. In my town, Portlaoise, through which the River Triogue flows, there was flooding at Bridge Street because the bridge was too narrow where the water left the town. We took down the bridge and straightened the river at the back of the convent school, meaning we never had flooding again on the street. However, the problem is that we are not cleaning and dredging the river according to principles of good river management, as was done when I was a young fella, the whole way along from Two Mile Bridge to The Rock GAA Club. No dredger has been seen recently. I saw the dredger on the river when I was a young fella. People keep asking me how there could not be flooding if the rivers are not managed. I mean managing them in co-operation with everybody else. None of us set out to do something wrong. Those who went before us hundreds of years ago did not set out to do anything wrong. They managed the rivers. When I was a young fella passing the same river each day coming home from school, I would see huge eels in it. There are still some there but not as many. We should ask why. I am told it has all to do with not touching the river. I do not know; I am not an expert. I can only tell what happened to me and what I saw with my own two eyes when I was a young fella. All those who lived along the River Triogue loved walking it, going out by Meany’s and O’Donnell’s. I recently asked an old man who lives along the river if there were many ducks. He said there are not as many as usual. Therefore, it is not all about not touching the river. There is something else at play. Is it that we need to have better management of rivers to encourage more wildlife to come? I asked the man when he last saw an otter. He said he does not know the day he last saw one. He is now 84. When he was a young fella, there were plenty of otters. He said he sees the odd crane standing at the side of the bank. The reason I am saying this is not to give a lecture here in Dáil Éireann but because all the talk about not doing river management must be balanced with what we saw 50 or 60 years ago, when there was plenty of wildlife along the river even though there was river management. The argument I am trying to put forward is that we need better management. I praise the Minister of State again for the work he has done. I look forward to him coming down to County Laois. I will have his lunch ready for him on the day.

Flooding is a fairly complicated scenario. It might look simple to address and devastating for families but there are a lot of different parts to this. The first thing people need to understand relates to towns especially. When Dublin was being developed, a certain number of pipes were put in, maybe 12 in., 14 in. or 18 in. in diameter. Then it was decided to build more houses and buildings, which was good, but the pipes had to take more and more water from the new estates. This went on and on. No more than with what you put into your mouth, sooner or later it does not all fit in. You have to do things in proportion. That is one aspect. Another aspect is cleaning out gullies. A lot of flooding is caused by simple things like gullies not being cleaned out. I thank the Minister of State for liaising with me in the past few weeks on the River Suck and the Shannon. The next aspect is drains. I remember when you could make, clean and do everything else with a drain. Now a farmer is afraid to make one because someone from the fisheries authorities or Department might say it is not allowed. Councils used to deal with a certain number of drains but now it is the case that if there is a bush, they will go every side of it rather than remove it. That bush might be growing for only 15 or 20 years and might be what we call a sucker. It is in the line of a small tree. If you do not keep a drain or river maintained, you will cause problems because there is a build-up. Let us be clear: built-up material has to be removed but this is not being done. There is a problem because nearly everyone wants to stop you from doing everything. If this continues and we do not put a system in place, things will get worse in the currently affected areas. Everyone looks to the OPW. It is but one part. The councils have to do their bit and Irish Water needs to look at the pipes put in years ago to take the storm-water. Joined-up thinking needs to take place. On bigger rivers, you have Inland Fisheries Ireland, the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, the fisheries and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. In some cases, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing because everyone is trying to stop things. We need collaborative thinking, as argued for by Deputy Aird, and we also need to ask how we can speed things up. I have referred before to rules and regulations and to the reports and, to be blunt about it, what I would call “rubbish” required because of European legislation. We have left the door open to people who want to see nothing happening in a country and who want to shoot down to the Four Courts to try to block projects. That is not acceptable because if a Minister is trying to get works done, it is a cruel thing to see the likes of a job being blocked. Go out to Connemara at the moment and look at Rossaveal, where we are trying to deepen a port. That has been blocked. Why? Because it has gone to the courts. Go around the country and look at that. That is not tolerable. I have said it time and again: we have played into the hands of these people who do not want to see progress. Until we change some of this, we will be in trouble. I remember we were down in Crossmolina years ago. I think that job has been done now, has it not? Was it in 2016 or something we were down there? It has taken seven or eight years to get all the paperwork right and to get that job rolling. It will be great for those people when it is done. You see the relief on people's faces. You will hear some people say the properties are built on a floodplain. If they were built 100, 200 or 300 years ago on a floodplain, we are hardly going to tell the people to move on to another place. We have to put in the measures to try to resolve the issue for the people at hand, Athlone being a perfect example, and go to different parts of the country. When those measures are put in, they are successful. We have to just think. I look at Lough Funshinagh, in Roscommon, and I saw what really good people in that area had to go through. I looked out a window one day, and to the top of my head the water was up higher on the far side of the road. That is frightening for anyone, and those good people live an ordinary life. They do not want to be saying anything or shouting or roaring, but the reality is that if that bank had pushed to the far side, they would have been in trouble. In fairness, pumps have been put in and an interim measure has been done, but we need to get long-term solutions, and not alone there. I am not talking about "If you do not do my back door" stuff. We need to get it in all the different parts, but it needs a myriad of joined-up thinking and speeding up. To be quite blunt, sometimes councils could be offered the money but they do not put in the gee-up into trying to get it done. That needs to be done as well. There is no point in saying it does not. There is no one-fit solution or one thing that will solve it all, but we need to work collaboratively together. To be frank, in most cases it is not money that is the problem, which is an unusual thing to say in here. It is the paperwork, the bureaucracy and the blocking by outside interests. I say to those people, have a think to yourself. Would you like your mother, your father, your brother or your sister to be looking out at what I am after talking about - and I am over 6 ft - and to be looking out a window and seeing the water higher than the house you were born, bred and reared in or the house you built. Is that what Irish people who want to go down to the Four Courts and go blocking jobs are about? We should have respect for everyone in this country and for those people who are in situations where the State is willing to help them but where someone comes along in their own interest and goes blocking.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. Flooding is affecting so many lives and property right across the country. In my county there is seaweed harvesting in the coastal areas and an application in to MARA, which is the maritime regulatory agency. Seaweed has a very important role to play in coastal erosion and helps the coastal areas maintain their foreshore, and this is causing huge concern. I have studied in detail this application that has been submitted to MARA and it is incredibly confusing. It appears that the application process and the pre-consultation aspects were complete over ten years ago, in 2014. Much of this application is built on some of the consultations that happened during this period. I want to make it very clear and to put it on the record of the Dáil that seaweed is fundamentally important for coastal areas in terms of flood management. We need a coastal management strategy. We need to ensure that we do not grant a licence that could potentially harvest up to 40,000 tonnes of seaweed from the coast of Galway and Mayo, which is what is proposed. I believe very few people in this House even realise that, such is the lack of information about these applications. I also want to raise the pace of the planning process for flood reliefs. I welcome the flood relief in Crossmolina, which will have a big impact on the town, but countless other towns still do not have a planning application even submitted - in Enniscorthy, Midleton and all those places. I urge the Minister of State to do everything necessary to streamline the planning process. Flood defences are critical infrastructure, and it is simply intolerable that a planning process can go on for so many years. There are families across Ireland who, in the depths of winter, in the nights of storms, cannot sleep, such is the level of worry and stress. I urge the Minister of State to prioritise the planning process, to adequately staff it, to adequately staff An Coimisiún Pleanála and to reform the planning process to ensure that bogus objectors are not allowed to submit. We have a Bill at the moment, which I urge the Minister of State to prioritise and support, whereby only those with a material interest in a planning application can make an objection. At the moment, if a farmer in Donegal is applying for planning permission for a slurry tank, there may be an objection from Cork, Wicklow or Wexford that has no interest. This is causing major delays in the system, and I ask the Minister of State to ensure that that can no longer be tolerated. It should not be tolerated. It is also important to say that many of these planning applications are hundreds and thousands of pages long. We should streamline that because in such a long application, in an application that spans thousands of words, pages and documents, it is leaving us ripe for judicial reviews. That is another major aspect holding progress back on these issues. I wish the Minister of State well and look forward to working with him on these projects over the years ahead.

I have been listening to the debate in the Chamber and upstairs for the past 90 minutes or so and can see that a lot of people are speaking from their own personal experience. I live near the River Glashaboy, in Glanmire, and living in the Cork city area with the River Lee, it is inevitable that our day-to-day lives are affected and shaped by the water around us. I have had to go into people's houses and kitchens, like the Minister of State, that have been affected by flooding, and they are some of the toughest days I have ever faced as a public representative. I think you can do it once, maybe twice, you can empathise with people truly, advocate on their behalf, lobby the council, lobby the OPW, lobby the Government for interventions, but unfortunately, as a number of speakers have said and reiterated here again tonight, sometimes you attend a person's home for the third or fourth time after it has been flooded and you reach a point where, as regards these inordinate delays in the planning system, we really have to question what the hell we are doing when we allow these schemes to go on for ten, 15 or 20 years. I was very grateful to Michael McGrath, when he was Minister for public expenditure in the last term, for the first scheme he signed off on. It was thankfully the Glashaboy flood relief scheme in Glanmire, which started in the summer of 2023. It is due to be completed later this year. Just to give people an idea of the timeline of a successful project, that project started in its planning stage after the floods of 2012, it went out for public consultation in 2016, ministerial confirmation was initially given in 2021 and the contract was awarded in 2023. Even for a scheme that did not have those legal challenges via judicial review, it has still taken the bones of 14 or 15 years to deliver, and that is one that faced relatively little opposition. On the face of it, we need to accept that the system there is unacceptable. There are two other schemes in Cork I would like to mention, the lower Lee and the Blackpool flood relief schemes. The lower Lee flood relief scheme is a massive project. It has faced opposition in the city. Many people have concerns about the height of the walls and about preserving the historic and cultural aspects of the city centre. Nonetheless, the scheme has been devised over a long period and will protect up to 2,100 properties, of which 1,200 are businesses trading every day in the city centre and 900 are homes. Some €20 million of that budget was allocated specifically to maintaining and preserving the city walls, while the bulk of it, approximately €140 million, is for the actual flood defences. Unfortunately, we are again in this cycle where that scheme was initially mooted in 2009. Since then, I have lost count of how many times the city centre has flooded around the quays. I know that scheme and the Blackpool flood relief scheme are with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, at the moment. The Blackpool flood relief scheme particularly irks me because there is local opposition. In the recent public consultation, 1,000 submissions were received. The vast majority of them, however, over 90%, were submissions in support of the scheme. Many political representatives in the area have used this as a political football, sitting on the fence, backing both horses and talking out of both sides of their mouth, but then you meet the people whose houses are flooded, whose businesses have been lost to this and who cannot get insurance. There is a stage in all of this where we have to prioritise property and people's right to live safely without fear of flooding. We have to prioritise it over environmental considerations in this case. That is a difficult thing to say because we want to preserve the environment. We do not want to see habitats affected negatively, but when it comes to striking a balance, it needs to tip in favour of protecting property and people's livelihoods. The Blackpool flood relief scheme is on the Minister's table. I hope that in the coming months sense will prevail. The worse that can happen with some of these schemes is that the scheme gets approved and people expect earth to be moved, machinery to arrive and the scheme to start. It is often the case, as I said in reference to the one in Glanmire, that it has taken the best part of three years to deliver the scheme. The worst thing in the case of Blackpool, which is at regular risk of flooding, would be to approve the scheme and in the meantime see it flood again. That would be unconscionable. The next point concerns the council response. Nine times out of ten, the council does a fantastic job and it is to be lauded. I live in a constituency that straddles Cork City Council and Cork County Council. I learned from a flood in Glanmire a couple of years ago that both have different responses. I would like to see a more co-ordinated national approach. They are simple things. One of the local authorities might fund skips going into estates to take out damaged property like floorboards or whatever the case may be, and the other local authority might not. Simple things like that really need co-ordination. There needs to be joined-up thinking. If national guidance is required for that, it needs to be issued and funded if necessary. A bugbear of mine, which I have spoken about in here about half a dozen times in the last five or six years, is insurance. We have had successful flood relief schemes. The OPW takes its time doing things but when it implements a scheme, it is reasonably successful. We can point towards Mallow and Fermoy in recent years, where successful flood relief schemes have been implemented and have held up. In those cases, it is difficult when people cannot avail of insurance after the fact. There needs to be some common sense when it comes to areas that have been protected by the interventions of the State and the OPW. They should be entitled to avail of flood insurance where schemes are seen to be viable and are protecting the area. Unfortunately, it is one of those things that get lost between the cracks. We concentrate so much of our time here on an area that has got flooded, the emergency response, getting the Red Cross involved and getting grants out to people. The forward thinking for future incidents, particularly in the area of flood insurance, seems to get put to the end of the queue when we are having these conversations because we jump from crisis to crisis, storm to storm and flood to flood. I would like to see something like a State equalisation scheme like we have in other sectors. It can and should be pursued, and that is only fair and proper. As Deputy Fitzmaurice has said, in the case of Cork city, there are buildings that have been there for hundreds of years in many cases. Our life has evolved. We benefited from the river through trade, culture and commerce over the years. We cannot just get up out of the city, pack our bags and plonk down somewhere else. We need to instigate an insurance scheme that will give people reassurance. Other speakers spoke about drainage, clearing drains, getting into rivers and taking debris out. This was probably one of the most frustrating things I saw over the years as a county councillor. You can visibly see fallen limbs, tree trunks and all sorts of vegetation overgrowth in the rivers. We are repeatedly told by the local authority that we cannot go in because of inland fisheries. I am not asking for a massive dredging plan of the Lee or anything. I am asking for simple things to happen to remove debris. This culture has evolved whereby we cannot do it because we are not allowed. The answer seems to be "No", before seeing how we can go about getting into the river to sort out the problem. I made what was an inappropriate reference to somebody earlier. We have had incidents on a number of rivers in Cork in the past year where there have been fish kills. People have polluted the rivers, the Blackwater in one case, either knowingly or accidentally. A lot of the time people get away with it and do not face prosecution. If they do get caught, they get a measly fine of a few thousand euro. Our local authorities are afraid to go into the river because they might get reprimanded in some way. Again, there needs to be a common-sense approach whereby we would weigh up the merits and the pros and cons, in this case as to whether to intervene. I do not understand the reluctance of local authorities to get in to clear out debris when appropriate, or to clear drains or whatever the case may be.

I welcome this opportunity to address the subject of flooding. I want to express my absolute gratitude to the Minister of State. He was everywhere in all parts of the country. We look forward to imminently welcoming him to County Meath. I express my sincere gratitude to the engineers and outdoor crew of Meath County Council, particularly in the municipal districts of Ashbourne, Laytown, Bettystown, Kells and Ratoath. I also express my gratitude to the farming community. I do not know of one farmer in our area who was not involved in pulling cars, vans and God knows what types of vehicles out of ditches or through floods at a time when the weather was playing havoc with the farming calendar. I also thank the ESB crew members and the fire and rescue services, who were extremely busy pumping out and then dealing with ad hoc repairs that were required where different parts of the electrical infrastructure short-circuited, etc. Listening to all of the contributions today, I am getting a fantastic lesson in geography from all parts of the country as represented by colleagues. Two things stand out in my mind. The first is that we really cannot cheat nature. We have to work with nature. We have to farm with nature, and we have to plan with nature and the climate. Another issue of high importance, which was referenced most recently by my colleague, is the huge wisdom and knowledge bank of our older people, our older residents, who know the way things were in the past, such as the course of the river, where the sluice was, where the mill of old was and how that impacted the topography of the area we now look to develop, particularly at a time of crisis in housing. This also highlights an important area, namely, that we measure twice and cut once and that when we are dealing with planning and housing, the importance of having the land use review published as soon as possible. It is also very important that we stick to the CFRAM maps. That was not the case in the past and we are now dealing with legacy issues where there has been flooding of developments in the past 20 to 25 years. It is so important that we adhere to those flood area maps. Other considerations include section 50 concerning the design of bridges and culverts, the placement and capacity of storm water attenuation tanks, the co-location of wastewater outflow and those attenuation tanks. We have had a couple of episodes in Ratoath, County Meath where the two collided and the outcome was not favourable. Thankfully, a public health emergency was averted. Rather than labour those points, I will raise them as flags. Regarding possible actions we could take, colleagues have spoken about storm notification systems, delays to that and money that was previously allocated but I remind people of the local authority and the MapAlerter apps that are very effective. As public representatives, we need to work with different WhatsApp groups and community groups to encourage as many residents as possible about the alerter maps. There have been calls for additional funding for road repairs and all of us would welcome that constituency by constituency. As part of our circular economy efforts, we are using different percentages of recycled asphalt for road repairs. This needs to be looked at. Prior to flooding in Meath, I noticed that the longevity of those products may not be quite what we would like it to be - then add flood waters to it. There are opportunities in the area of rainwater harvesting, particularly in urban areas where run off can be redirected to supply water to tree plantations and shrubs. It could be beneficial to Tidy Towns groups and ease the burden on them so they do not have to go to and fro with watering cans but we have water stations and an adequate supply of water butts. These are simple, low-cost interventions that involve working with nature. I wish to raise the issue of coastal erosion, although I know it is not specifically flood-related. County Meath has a very precious and short 13 km coastline. There is one particular area at Laytown where a substantial portion of the pitch and putt facility has fallen away on to the foreshore. The pitch and putt club there has been in existence for over 50 years. The volunteers have worked at a Trojan rate over the past couple of weekends to clear up the damage. I emphasise that there is a plan for the area but, again, it involves that overall piece of what was there historically, what was part of the heritage of the area and how is that interwoven with new developments. The Laytown-Bettystown district has seen massive housing development over the probably the past 27 to 30 years. It is about how it goes forward when there will be a sense of, pardon the phrase, "Build, baby, build". That will be what we need to do but we need to learn the lessons of the past, take on board the wisdom of our older residents and their memory bank and factor that into the actions we take. I thank the Minister of State for the work he has been doing. I hope he will not need his dinghy or canoe when he comes to County Meath in the near future.

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. One theme emerged, namely, all of us working together. It is vitally important that we do not play politics because for the past number of weeks and years gone by, we have all seen the devastation flooding has caused families. While we talk about the water receding, people are trying to get their lives back together. The very thought of rainfall tonight brings back the fear that it may flood again. There has been a lot of talk about what has happened. We launched CFRAM in 2018. When we think of times before then, there was very little money in the country to deal with flooding because we went through recessions and all sorts of problems but we dealt with them. We adopted the CFRAM strategy in 2018. I said at the time that it would be the bible going forward in terms of flooding where we could see the areas that were badly affected and the areas that needed protection the most based on population. What we have seen is climate change. We have seen a severe change that is happening around the world. When I adopted those plans, I travelled the length and breadth of the country meeting local authorities. We achieved that and then had to look for the money. There is not a county where I could not tell Deputies how much of the €1.3 billion that is ring-fenced for flood prevention will be ring-fenced for that county. What changes have we brought forward after my return to Dáil Éireann? When I look at areas from Louth to Enniscorthy that have seen so much flooding over the past number of weeks, I see at first hand what interim measures can do. I know that we worked tirelessly to protect the town of Athlone and, thankfully, the flood defences are there and people see the reward. I have expanded the arrangement involving five local authorities to eight. They are coming to meet me on 2 March. I will work with them to look at interim measures while we deliver the long-term solutions. We have also provided local authorities with staff to drive the delivery of these changes. We have made changes to the minor works scheme increasing funding from €750,000 to €2 million. People talk about blockages in rivers. For the first time, I provided a budget and I will appeal to local authorities to deliver on it. Long before what has happened in the past few weeks, I visited Kerry, Clontarf, Portrane and Strandhill in County Sligo. Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned Lough Funshinagh, which is close to my home. We brought in interim measures in the space of three months to deliver protection for those communities. There is a lot that has to be taken into account. Members come in here and say we should do this and that and reverse the matter concerning the pearl mussel. We will not do that. We build 56 schemes by working with the land and all the bodies. That is how we do it. We do not say it is a matter of one thing versus another for political reasons. That is wrong. My job is as Minister of State and the job of my Department and the Government is to work together with elected representatives and local authorities to deliver schemes. We have a plan. Deputy Fitzmaurice said that for once, we have the money. My job is to work with local authorities to deliver on these interim measures while we wait for long-term defences to be put in place for communities because people have suffered greatly and I do not like what has happened no more than anyone else in the House. We were lucky the two recent big events happened at night. If they had happened during the day, we could have been looking at something totally different. A 90-year-old woman in Dublin was taken out of her house in a brown bin to get her away from the floods. A man over 90 in Enniscorthy was taken out in a boat. Any human being would want to do more but despite what Members might say in the House, there are planning constraints and we have to deal with them and work together. I will bring in changes over the next number of weeks. The purchasing of equipment required to support local authorities was mentioned. This is happening. We are looking at ways of shortening the timeframe for delivering schemes. This is us working together with the local authorities. Members on the different sides of the House come in and say that the OPW is not doing enough. I need every single Member to go to their local authorities and talk to its staff about the schemes and get to know what is involved in a scheme. They should even visit places where we have done these big projects because the one thing that people forget is that 95% of the wall, glass or embankment that we see finished is underground and sometimes under the water. That, in itself, tells us the engineering and everything else that is involved to get it that level. We all talk about Enniscorthy and the way it was affected. In my county of Westmeath, I am thankful that the council's CEO Barry Kehoe acted efficiently with the local authorities working together to deliver the AquaDams. I heard people on the radio say that they did not what an AquaDam was. This is not about me. It is about us all coming together to deliver for these communities. There is a lot more we can do. I hope to host the first flooding conference where I will bring local authorities from around the country together and we can talk to them, look at solutions and drive on. Together we can make it happen. We have to stop fighting and blaming nature. We have to deal with nature and we have to deal with what is coming upon us. While we sit here and stand here, we also have to recognise the resilience shown by communities over the past 20 days. I spoke to some of the farmers who came out with slurry tanks to soak water off roads or pulled cars off roads. People in corner shops that were affected still went down to the road to help their neighbour next door. That speaks volumes. People want help and they want answers. The Government has not been found wanting for support for people through funding for the Red Cross and the other business fund that is available. I have met the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on a great number of occasions to discuss other ways we can fast-track the delivery of flood defences for people. We talk about it being critical infrastructure and it is, but the critical infrastructure Bill will not fix everything, but it will help. The arterial drainage (amendment) Bill is ready to go into the House. That will halve the time in the planning process. When we put stuff into Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, or DPER as well call it, it could be two years there. We have now seen An Coimisiún Pleanála turn around schemes in six, eight and nine months. That is very positive, but it will not do everything. We will still need to put them into DPER, which will continue to deliver with the local authorities. The moneys I announced for the minor works scheme and channel cleaning is a bible to help local authorities up and down the country going forward. I will work with every Member. My door is open. If they have suggestions, do not be afraid to come to me. People say that when there is a crisis, we come in here and talk about. I am not going away from this issue. I am a hands-on Minister of State and I bring energy. We have 100 schemes at different stages. One critical part of that is we were spending €74 million a year. On my return back to this House last year, €102 million was spent on flood defences. That will tell Members the energy that my Department, the Government and I bring to this issue. This Government wants to successfully deliver the flood schemes for the people up and own this country. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.