Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan.

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. I am conscious that inclement weather is visiting the country again as we speak. We have been experiencing it for weeks on end and ten minutes ago, Met Éireann extended its red alert from Munster to Connacht and Leinster. I understand 100,000 homes are without electricity, Shannon Airport is closed and bus and rail services are severely affected throughout the country. I was in touch with my constituency office before I came to the House and severe damage has been done across my home county. The roof of the new swimming pool in New Ross, for example, has been damaged among other infrastructural damage. I am conscious that we are not talking in historic terms about damage done or sticking plasters, to use Deputy Martin's phrase. There is an ongoing crisis affecting people as we speak.

I pay tribute to the staff of all our utility companies for the work they continue to do in order to ensure that services, particularly electricity, will be restored to people as soon as possible. The point has been made before, but it bears repeating, that the staff of the ESB and local authorities, the members of An Garda Síochána and the Civil Defence and all the community groups that have been involved in addressing the unprecedented storms we have been experiencing in recent weeks must be commended.

Like other Deputies who represent coastal constituencies, I witnessed at first hand the damage that has been done when I visited the flooded areas around New Ross last weekend. Members will be aware that no amount of TV coverage, regardless of how effectively it is presented, can impart the personal hurt and sense of loss and devastation endured by individuals and families when their homes or businesses are devastated by floodwaters. Their hurt and fear is compounded by the knowledge that future weather events might bring further harm to them. Unfortunately, we do not know when the current storm cycle will end. When I was in New Ross, I witnessed the impact of many voluntary community responses to the floods. Indeed people in every part of the country have been rallying in support of their neighbours in so far as is possible. I also saw how small-scale works can offer real protection. The centre of New Ross is protected by flood walls - these will have to be extended - and the works involved were not particularly expensive to complete. Despite the recent floods, there have been instances where flooding was avoided as a result of the fact that defences were put in place. Weather events of the kind we have been experiencing in recent weeks are going to become more common and it is clear that we must engage in a debate on this manner in calmer times.

The response of the Government to the disaster has been threefold. First, as the other Ministers who contributed have already indicated, we have allocated up to €25 million for humanitarian assistance. That is an indicative sum. The moneys involved are to be drawn down on the basis of need and we made a decision yesterday to the effect that some of them are to be channelled through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Irish Red Cross, particularly in respect of those who have difficulty in accessing these moneys through the social welfare system. Social welfare offices have extended their opening hours and social welfare officers are providing assistance to people on a door-to-door basis. I commend the staff of the Department of Social Protection on their efforts in this regard. The second part of the Government's response involves the €70 million that has been allocated, to which the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, referred, in order to address the damage done to key infrastructure.

The third element of our response - I accept what Deputy Martin stated in this regard - relates to a challenge with which we must deal in the medium term. I thank my colleague, the Minister of State at my Department, Deputy Brian Hayes, for the tireless work he has done not only in recent weeks but also during the past three years. He has been forthright in offering his opinion in respect of what needs to be done and he has commenced the national debate on the impact of climate change. There is no doubt that climate change will pose real and substantial challenges to an island nation such as Ireland. Six more flood relief schemes are expected to commence this year in Templemore, Claregalway, Bandon, Skibbereen, Bray and Dublin. In the coming years, progress will be made towards enhancing flood defences throughout the country. I met senior officials from the OPW this morning in order that I might pledge whatever resources are required to put in place immediate relief measures that can have an impact in the medium term and protect our coasts.

It will not be easy to deal with what lies ahead. Let us not pretend that instant schemes can be put in place. The schemes to which Deputy Martin referred, such as that in Clonmel, were planned over many years. We are involved in a major planning process in this regard and we must engage in a debate on how a significant level of resources will have to be deployed in order to ensure that this country and its people will be prepared to deal with the change that is happening to climate worldwide. These issues must remain at the core of our focus long after the current storms pass.

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