I will add to the issue of ongoing flooding and the wider impacts recent extreme weather events have had across Ireland which are becoming more frequent and more severe as our weather grows increasingly unpredictable. Over the past number of weeks, flooding in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West has wreaked havoc. Homes, roads and local infrastructure have all been badly affected and communities have once again been left dealing with the consequences after the fact. This highlights a serious flaw in how we approach extreme weather. We remain locked in a cycle of crisis management, reacting after the damage is done rather than planning ahead. That approach is no longer fit for purpose. We need to move towards a dedicated national weather and flooding response team tasked with planning, co-ordination and preparedness so that when severe weather hits, a practical and fully resourced policy is already in place and ready to be implemented. I acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of the staff in Fingal County Council who worked around the clock in extremely difficult conditions to support communities during the recent floods. However, they are being asked to do far too much with far too little. I contacted a member of staff before 8 a.m. last Friday and they were already dealing with multiple flooding issues in the Rush and Lusk area. This is not a reflection on the staff but a chronic lack of resources, funding and support provided to our local authorities. Our council workers are stretched to breaking point, responding to increasingly severe weather events without the staffing, funding or infrastructure required to do the job properly. That situation is not sustainable and must now be addressed at a national level. I will also speak about something that might not always make national headlines but has a real and very damaging impact on people’s daily lives, the shocking state of our local roads. The recent flooding has pushed an already fragile situation into crisis. I will give some examples from my constituency of Dublin Fingal West. On Brook Lane in Rush, residents were effectively trapped in their own homes. They could not get out and families were cut off. This is not acceptable in 2026. In Bowhill, conditions were no better. Our local boxing club, a place that provides the community with an opportunity for young people to go to was completely flooded, facilities were damaged and equipment was destroyed with volunteers left to pick up the pieces. Commons Lane in Lusk was cratered like no-man's land. Across Fingal West, many roads were already in poor repair. Years of wear, underinvestment and patchwork fixes have taken their toll but flooding has accelerated that deterioration at an alarming rate. What were potholes are now literal craters - tyre gobblers - tearing through rural roads, damaging cars and creating hazards for other road users. This is not just inconvenient; it is dangerous. Parents driving children to school, carers travelling to vulnerable residents and workers commuting long distances are all navigating roads that are not fit for purpose. In rural parts of Fingal West, the damage to vehicles has become routine. People are paying out of their pockets for repairs caused not through recklessness but through neglect of the infrastructure. Meanwhile, Fingal County Council like other county councils is being placed under increasing pressure. It is expected to maintain an extensive network of approximately 1,340 km of roads with limited and insufficient resources. That is simply not sustainable. No local authority can be asked to stretch funding thin and still deliver the standard of infrastructure our communities need. We need to be more honest about the scale of the challenge. This requires a national policy response that recognises we are facing not a series of isolated incidents but a systemic infrastructure crisis intensified by extreme weather. We need additional ring-fenced funding, technical support, drainage systems and flood mitigation particularly in areas that are now clearly flood prone which may not have been previously. Extreme weather is no longer the exception; it is our new reality. The response must match that reality with forward planning, resilience built into every project, and resources that reflect the scale of the network which varies from county to county. Communities across Dublin Fingal West cannot be left to endure this cycle of flood, damage, patch up and repeat. They deserve safe roads, reliable infrastructure and a Government response that recognises the urgency of this matter. I have no doubt the Minister of State is well aware of this and he will rise to the challenge in this matter.

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