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.

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