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.

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