I extend my solidarity to the people in my constituency of Dublin Rathdown who have been impacted by Storm Chandra and to everyone across the country who has been impacted by Strom Chandra and other recent weather events. Locally we saw incredible footage of damaged areas like Nutgrove Avenue and Enniskerry Road. I acknowledge the incredible work of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, not only the front-line workers who responded swiftly in the early hours of 25 January but also all the backroom workers who responded to over 500 calls. When the council met on 9 February to review responses to the storm, a number of productive measures were suggested, including the installation of additional cameras in areas of the river network, the expansion of the rain gauge network to include higher areas such as Three Rock and the improvement of drainage systems in areas like Loreto Park. These are all welcome suggestions but they reflect an individual council approach to a State-wide collective problem. The aftermath of Storm Chandra has exposed the hard truth that in an age of rapid climate change, our infrastructure and communication methods are failing. This is not something that individual councils and isolated improvements can fix; it is a responsibility which sits squarely on the shoulders of the Government. In 2024, the Cookstown Lane social housing development was opened in Kilternan. All 22 homes on the estate were filled with families who had been on the social housing waiting list. In the aftermath of Storm Chandra, the estate was filled with water. It has been ruined, flooded by the Loughlinstown river. Those same families have been uprooted, with most unable to return for several months. No matter how strong local council efforts to drain the area and help residents may be, they cannot meaningfully reduce the damage in situations like this. A concern repeated throughout the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council meeting was the inability to swiftly communicate with residents about the dangers of the storm. This issue has been pertinent to other extreme weather incidents across the country, including Storm Éowyn last year. It is something successive governments have been warned about for years. In 2018, the European electronic communications code made it mandatory for all member states of the European Union to deploy a public warning system by June 2022 using telephone networks to alert everyone located in a specific area of an ongoing crisis or upcoming disaster. That deadline was nearly four years ago but, if I am correct, we still have not launched a tender for such a system. We remain one of the few EU member states without a comprehensive public warning communication system, yet our exposure to extreme weather is set to increase in the coming years. The Government must recognise that Storm Chandra should not be treated as an isolated phenomenon, but as a real part of our new weather pattern. Proactive steps must be taken to ensure extreme weather is treated with a co-ordinated, holistic and State-wide communication approach from the Government and that burdens are not placed on under-resourced individual councils.

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