I thank the Minister of State for being here today. I am here again today to discuss flooding. I have been raising this issue since I was first elected back in 2016. I have gone through four Ministers of State on this issue. Ten years later, the people of my town Midleton are still waiting for the flood relief scheme to be implemented. I acknowledge that the Minister of State visited, as did the former Minister of State, but I am giving him a synopsis of where the people of Midleton, in particular, are, but I am not forgetting the likes of Whitegate, Mogeely, Rathcormac and other areas that were flooded. The failure to start any real work on the overall flood relief scheme planned for the town is one thing but the absence of progress on promised interim flood relief measures is beyond frustrating, especially for many of the residents of Midleton who are still living in fear every time it rains. Many admit to suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression after having their homes flooded. Records dating back as far as the 1880s show Midleton, which is located in a low-lying valley at the junction of the Owenacurra and Dungourney rivers. These have flooded regularly, underlining the long-standing need for a flood relief scheme in east Cork. Another one I raised here was the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, study. It was produced back in 2013. In that CFRAM study, there was hydraulic modelling, and other big fancy words they use when doing these models for predicting floods. It made a prediction. I refer to Storm Babet, the most recent storm and where I live in Midleton. This map shows the Mill Road. The thin blue line is the river. It predicted where the water was, how much water would come down and where it would come out. This was back in 2013. It also predicted that not too far from where my office is, there would be 1.4 m of water. It went up to the fascia board and soffit of a bungalow at the junction. It also outlined preventative measures on how this could be done. We are possibly 16 years talking about this and the council has decided now that it is going to build a bank up beyond Moore's Bridge to stop this water flowing down the Mill Road and hitting Willowbank and Tír Cluain. That still has not been done. The Minister of State, in his opening remarks, spoke about what we would do and how he would do it. I know he said he had 150 flood relief schemes and so on and so forth but for the people of Midleton, east Cork and other areas that have been flooded - and this is not being disrespectful to the Minister of State - that is not the answer they want or need. They want to know why interim measures were not done ten or 15 years ago, and why they are doing these CFRAM flood studies with nothing being acted on. Another one I flagged - I have not seen it - was the voluntary homeowners relocation scheme. Back in 2016, 2017 or 2018, I remember meeting the then Minister and the Minister for Social Protection with a family because their home was absolutely destroyed. There was never a mention of a voluntary homeowners relocation scheme. That family is still paying a mortgage for a three-bedroom semi-detached house that is totally uninhabitable. I will chase the Minister of State up on that one. I would like to know more about that because that family has been absolutely destroyed. I appeal for urgency. I acknowledge the Minister of State's engagement on this but I am relaying what the people of Midleton and surrounding areas are saying. Whatever hoops the Minister of State has to jump through and whatever planning we have to do, in regard to those who are objecting, I think it is time for the hammer to come down and to say "No". The priority is people, their livelihoods and homes and that is what we have to protect.

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