Dail hears of the devastating impact of recent floods on communities

The government made 137 emergency response payments to flood victims in eight counties, the minister responsible for the Office of Public Works has said.

Kevin “Boxer” Moran, an independent TD who serves as a Minister of State in the government, said, as of Monday, 53 applications had also been made for emergency humanitarian flooding support.

It is a scheme to help small businesses and community, voluntary and sports organisations that have suffered damage.

Earlier this month the Government announced an expansion of the scheme from a limit of 20,000 euro to 100,000 euro and made it available to organisations with up to 50 employees, up from 20.

Mr Moran was addressing the Dail about the series of floods that hit a number of areas across Ireland in the first few weeks of this year.

A number of TDs told the minister of the impact the flooding has had on their constituents.

Sinn Fein’s Johnny Mythen said roads around his hometown of Enniscorthy were “completely obliterated altogether”, 60 businesses in the region were affected “some of whom have stated that they won’t even open again” and many of the homes “destroyed by water and contaminated effluence” were occupied by old age pensioners.

The area has been flooded 16 times since the year 2000, he told Mr Moran adding: “I’m sure you realise the anguish, the torment, the feeling of desperation and the sleepless nights these people have gone through.”

Mr Mythen said homeowners in the area have a “snowball’s chance in hell” of getting insurance and “must replace every stick of furniture, including kitchens, fridges, personal belongings, and most of their white goods themselves”.

The issue needs to be treated as a “humanitarian emergency”, he said.

He said the delay to the Slaney flood relief because of the potential impact on the fresh water mussel was “infuriating” people and “pleaded” with the minister to “act now” and “approve the flood relief scheme independently”.

Fianna Fail’s Malcolm Byrne said Bunclody in County Wexford had faced “the first serious flooding in 60 years” when the Slaney burst its banks, and said it was “horrific” visiting some of the impacted homes and businesses.

Many of them had flood insurance, but “they won’t get it again”, he said.

He added: “We do need to look at some sort of state guarantees until a permanent flood defence system is put in place in these communities”.

The issue of flood forecasting was raised by Sinn Fein’s Louise O’Reilly who said it is a “scandal” that “millions of euros that were allocated for the National Flood Forecast and Warning Service over the last eight years have remained unspent”.

She said: “It doesn’t make any sense to me, but it most definitely does not make any sense to people who, if they have a warning, they’ll be able to put systems in place.”

Sandbag and other temporary mitigation measures are “no use to people” if they do not get advanced warnings.

Ms O’Reilly said it is “very hard to explain to people” that money was allocated for the development of a flood warning system” and yet somehow the department could not find its way to spend in it”.

“Successive governments” have been warned about the need for a better alert and warning system for extreme weather events, the Social Democrats’ Sinead Gibney said.

She said 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 an upcoming disaster”.

Four years after the deadline, she said, Ireland still has not launched a tender and remains “one of the only EU member states without a comprehensive form of public warning communication systems”.

Many TDs raised the issue of the impact the heavy rain and flooding have had on local roads.

Labour’s Rob O’Donoghue said it “has pushed an already fragile situation into a crisis”.

The Fingal West TD said some residents in Rush were “effectively trapped in their homes”, because of damage to the roads.

He described some in Lusk as “cratered like no man’s land”.

Mr Moran said he is meeting with eight local authorities on March 2 and will “work with them to look at interim measures while we deliver the long-term solutions”.

He said in other areas interim measures had been brought in “in the space of three months” and said there is “a lot” that needs to be considered in the planning of long-term flood defence projects.

He emphasised the need for elected representatives and local authorities to “work together” telling TDs: “I need every single elected member in this house to go to the local authorities, talk about the schemes, get to know what’s involved in the scheme, and even visit where we do these big projects.”