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.

Sentiment score: -0.01