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 -----

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-----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.

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