Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A Cheann Chomhairle, cuirim fáilte roimh an deis seo labhairt ar na tuilte uafásacha a bhuail go leor saoránach. The scenes of utter devastation and the distress of families and communities across large parts of the island of Ireland as a result of flooding have been shocking. There has been a succession of storms and successive governments have failed to take account of the warnings, to co-ordinate the relevant State agencies effectively and speedily, or to adequately plan for a future in which these storms are regular features of our autumns and winters.

Before Christmas I visited Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim and Roscommon and spent some time with people whose homes and businesses were flooded. Last week I met families in the Mounthamilton area of Dundalk in my own constituency and I subsequently travelled to St. Mary's Park in Limerick and to O'Brien's Bridge and Clonlara in County Clare. Despite the widespread media coverage, nothing actually prepares one for the scenes of desolation and devastation or the trauma and, particularly, the psychological distress of the families, some of whom are now experiencing their eighth flood. Those families and business people, and the small and bigger farmers to whom I spoke, were mentally and physically exhausted with the daily battle against the floods. Many were frustrated by the Government's poor response.

This is more than just the loss of property and possessions. The people I met have had their whole lives turned upside down. In one case the teenage children of a family do not want to return home as the house is destroyed. They spoke about the loss of photographs of holy communions and confirmations and of weddings, as well as memorial cards for their parents or children's jotters. They live in Mounthamilton and this is the second time their home has been flooded in recent years. The last time they spent a huge amount of money on refurbishment. Two out of 13 homes are flooded there and none of the residents has vehicular access to their homes because the roadway was submerged. There are also issues with sewage and rubbish collections.

Mounthamilton was also badly flooded in 2014. One home has now been flooded six times – in 1979, 1992, 2000, 2014, in December 2015 and again this month. As I said earlier when, on behalf of Deputy Stanley and myself, I moved a bill for a single agency for the Shannon, I met Geraldine and Joe Quinlivan who have to travel a mile by boat to get to their home. They are exasperated beyond belief. They have a family of strong sons who are fit young men but, as their mother told me, they are mentally and physically exhausted because they were manning pumps 24/7 for three and a half weeks before the welcome arrival of the Defence Forces to take up this challenging chore. They are also critical of the refusal to listen to residents who have the local knowledge essential to help combat flooding. This family has lived in their home in Springfield, Clonlara for 150 years and they were flooded in 2000, 2006, 2009, 2014 and again this year. All the people in this river basin live in dread from November to March each year, especially if it has been a wet summer and the water table is high. Geraldine rightly says, "We should never have to go through this again". No one should.

At O'Brien's Bridge the Shannon is wider than in the living memory of locals. It was plain for all to see. D'imigh páirceanna as radharc agus tá an abhainn ag rith go han-tapa. At St. Mary's Park in Limerick, the flood defences put in place after the disastrous flood two years ago amounted to two rows of breeze blocks on top of a porous wall, which is totally inadequate. The Taoiseach may recall my raising this issue with him in 2014 when I visited that area. It is a small working-class neighbourhood and the community rallied although in some of the small terraced homes the water was ceiling high. They could not get insurance and I remember raising this in the House and being given all sorts of promises. They still have not got insurance. The commitments made about defences being put in place have still not been honoured.

Climate change is a major factor in all of this, something we are all smart about now. Six of the warmest years we have ever experienced occurred in the past 25 years and there has been a reduction in the number of frost days and a shortening of the frost season. We have also witnessed an increase in the annual rainfall in northern and western parts of the island with decreases or small increases in the south and east. The Government's approach to climate change has been inadequate and the State will not reach the 20% reduction in emissions by 2020 that it signed up to. When I raised this issue with the Taoiseach last November he acknowledged that the State faces fines of between €5 billion and €6 billion if it cannot meet climate change goals. I see little evidence of planning for this. I raise this fraternally because I would like to see evidence of planning.

The planning laws passed by successive governments have contributed to this crisis. Developers have been allowed, even encouraged, to build on floodplains. Even someone who has no experience in this can see that there are buildings in places where they should not have been given planning permission to be built - it is as obvious as the eyes in one's head. In 2003 a proposal to introduce a ban on building on floodplains was rejected by the Fianna Fáil Government and five years later another report produced more draft guidelines which local councils were free to ignore.

We need to get real on this issue. Last month, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht urged a ban on future building on floodplains but there has been no evidence so far of the Government bringing forward the necessary measures to protect homes and towns or to tackle the insufficient planning regulations which have contributed to this crisis. A report at the weekend in the TheSunday Business Postrevealed that the Office of Public Works has identified 70,000 homes at risk of flooding. Almost half of these are not included in the Government's flood defence plan which is currently being drafted.

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