Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

There are a couple of issues I want to deal with. The first is the flooding in Midleton. It goes to the heart of a major problem that exists in this Government in terms of the delivery of projects. The Minister of State alluded to it when he stated that Lough Funshinagh engineering projects could have been delivered 20 years ago and that they have to jump through so many hoops now. It does feel, in many ways, that we are really starting to tie ourselves up in knots in this country in terms of the delivery of proper infrastructural projects. It is three months since the floods in Midleton and many families are not back in their homes. Many families are split up. Some people have no option of where to live. They are living in terrible conditions at the moment. Some businesses are still not open, and many will never reopen. Many businesses are actually waiting for compensation from the humanitarian aid assistance fund for homeowners and from the emergency relief scheme for businesses. There is a huge level of trauma and the associated mental health issues there. It seems that this whole process of delivering support is riddled with red tape. I have been speaking to Mona Stromsoe, who is part of the campaign in Midleton to try to get the flood defences built on time. It is striking. Why is it the case that so many families have not received humanitarian aid and so many businesses have not received aid from the relief scheme at this stage, three months later?