Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I put on record and praise the bravery, professionalism and effort of the many people in the public sector in Cork who have worked night and day beyond the call of duty during the past week, including those in the Garda, Fire Service, Civil Defence, Army, Naval Service and local authorities as well as community leaders working on a voluntary basis. They have worked among communities in Cork and elsewhere in a spirit upon which we should collectively build.

I appeal to the Government and the Minister to ensure that the hardship payments available through community welfare officers and the humanitarian assistance announced today can be accessed quickly and without excessive bureaucracy. There should not be a lengthy application process with means tests and so on. We must get money to people quickly while they are in distress and while they need it in the build up to Christmas. As the floods abate there must be an honest assessment of the lessons we can learn from the successes and failures and of the way in which we performed in the past week, especially in my city of Cork. An independent inquiry would help that process.

I defend the management by the ESB of the dams Inniscarra and Carrigadrohid. I spent more than one and a half hours at Inniscarra dam yesterday speaking to the management there. Given the infrastructure available last Thursday, the options at their disposal were very limited. Some 90 mm of rain fell in 14 hours. They sent out two emergency flood warnings on Thursday. The reality is no one anticipated the level of water flow that evening. Some 800 tonnes of water was coming into the catchment area above the dams per second. At its peak, when the floods were at their worst in Cork city, some 535 tonnes or cubic metres had to be released through the dam into the city to avoid water spilling over the top of the dam. Having examined the graphs of the water levels on the dam, the management made a significant attempt to reduce the level of the lakes in anticipation of the heavy rainfall on Thursday evening. However, in spite of that there were forced to allow through the volume of water they believed necessary.

There was a communications problem between the ESB and the local authorities which trigger the emergency response. Communications broke down and did not work as they should. People were not informed as they should have been and if they had been, they could have availed of the opportunity to take things off the floor, move computers from the ground flood upstairs and so on in their businesses and homes. We could have done some things differently and we must ensure that the next time a proper communications stream between the ESB, local authorities, businesses and the public is in place such that there can be a realistic expectation of what is, literally, coming down the river. Let us learn the lessons and hold an honest, independent assessment of the performance. Let us not simply blame people but put in place a new management structure such that we cope better the next time.

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