I thank Deputies Tóibín and Lawless for tabling this motion. The Labour Party has submitted an amendment which, we hope, will be an effort to strengthen the motion. As Deputy Lawlor said, however, this is something we all need to work together on. Like Deputy Lawlor's constituency, my constituency of Dublin South-West was hit really hard by the floods that happened in the wake of Storm Chandra, particularly Rathfarnham and parts of the Ballycullen area. I thank the Minister of State for coming to visit the parts of Rathfarnham near the River Dodder. There was significant damage in Woodside and places like that. Councillor Paddy Cosgrave and I have been working closely with local businesses and residents in the aftermath. I feel we were able to give people some practical help over the past few weeks in being a link between residents, businesses and the council and in giving a little advice about the supports that are available and that we have seen increase. Credit goes to the Minister, Deputy Burke, regarding the business support scheme. Households in areas like Grange Park, Woodside and Nutgrove Avenue were badly affected by the flooding. Thousands of euro worth of damage has been done to people's homes and businesses. Cars have been written off. Water came up through the floorboards in houses. We are not sure about the structural damage that has been done as a result of this. There will be medium- to long-term effects, and I am glad to see the Government has some schemes in place in relation to those. Of course, they are only effective if you do not already have insurance. Obviously, there are lots of households which do not have insurance. I will get to that in a moment. Part of the Labour Party's amendment involves putting the support schemes - the business one as well as those for affected community organisations - on a statutory footing in order that they do not require Government approval to kick in every time there is an incident of localised flooding. When pressed by my colleague Deputy Ged Nash on this matter in the aftermath of flooding in north Louth in 2023, the previous Government stated that this statutory scheme would be a priority but it still has not been delivered. If the Government wants to project a sense of urgency in dealing with issues around flooding, then this must be done immediately. Our amendment also calls for the introduction of a flood insurance scheme modelled after the successful Flood Re scheme in the UK, which provides cover for households and businesses that are increasingly denied coverage, even when flood defences are in place near them. Grange Park in Rathfarnham previously experienced similar levels of flooding around 20 years ago. From speaking to residents in the area, I am aware that it has been a nightmare for them to get flood insurance ever since, even though there is a flood alleviation scheme being put in place right beside them. One in 20 buildings in Ireland has limited access to flood insurance. That is a pretty incredible statistic. I know the Minister of State has asked his officials to examine the Flood Re scheme. We very much welcome that and we would like to see some progress on it. We do need to get our act together on flood defences. The Labour Party amendment notes the changing weather patterns we are seeing, with more rain, more frequent and severe storms and more flooding and all this is the result of climate change. We need to be clear about that. I am sure that acknowledgement was not purposely omitted from the original motion but it is really important for us that that acknowledgment that this is as a result of climate change is put front and centre here. On the front page of today’s Irish Examiner Maynooth University’s Professor Peter Thorne is explicit that this is going to get worse as a result of climate change and we are miles behind in mitigation measures like flood defences. Progress has been too slow. The OPW in my area commenced construction on the Whitechurch Stream flood alleviation scheme in Rathfarnham three years ago. It has been beset with what look like numerous preventable delays, the consequences of which were realised in Grange Park just two weeks ago and the disruption from which has been suffered by residents on the road beside Whitechurch Stream in estates like St. Gatiens Court, Willbrook and Tara Hill for the last three years. It can be very convenient for the Government and local authorities to blame judicial reviews and scapegoat environmental concerns about these schemes as a sole reason for the delays to the flood schemes being constructed. I was dismayed to hear Ministers essentially make virtue last week of setting aside environmental concerns to expedite flood alleviation schemes. God knows our waterways are polluted enough already and are in such a bad state - Lady’s Island lake, Lough Neagh and the River Blackwater - without the Government greenlighting further destruction of precious and quickly depleting biodiversity and wildlife habitat. We need to be looking upstream at nature-based solutions rather than just this concrete-first approach. How can we possibly still be building on flood plains? It defies logic. The issue for me and for the Labour Party is that it lies in the proper resourcing of our planning authorities and the courts to deal quickly with the applications for these schemes, and appeals when they arise, and to properly resource our local authorities and the OPW when it comes to the actual construction of the schemes so that they do not take years to complete.

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