Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have an opportunity to outline a number of measures taken to support those affected by recent floods throughout the country. I have personally visited a number of locations affected. I appreciate the difficulty and distressing circumstances that many people and families have found themselves in. Still this evening, many families are in distressing and difficult circumstances. The same applies to some businesses and those involved are trying to put their businesses back together.

As the chair of the Government's task force on emergency planning, supported by the Office of Emergency Planning, I have a role in ensuring that arrangements are in place for the co-ordination of emergencies at a national level. As part of the agreed arrangements, a national emergency co-ordination group is convened in response to a threatened or ongoing national-level emergency. The NECG on severe weather, chaired by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, was convened on 3 December in advance of the anticipated heavy rainfall predicted from Storm Desmond. Since the initial meeting of the NECG on 3 December a total of 30 meetings have been convened. There has been a meeting virtually every day, with only a couple of days over Christmas when the group did not meet.

As the Minister for Defence, I am pleased to report that all the available resources of the Defence Forces and the Civil Defence have been made available 24 hours per day, seven days per week upon request to support local authorities, An Garda Síochána and the Health Service Executive in emergency situations without charge for severe weather events. In other words, we foot the bill rather than local authorities.

During the recent period of severe weather from 4 December to date, the Defence Forces have responded positively to all requests for support from local authorities and others. The extent of support provided has been considerable, with the Defence Forces being deployed in Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Clare, Kilkenny, Wexford, Westmeath, Limerick, Tipperary and Cork. The Defence Forces have provided a range of supports from assisting with the evacuation of people, assisting nurses and patients to get to hospital from flooded areas, maintaining flood defences and the making and placing of sandbags.

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On one evening we got a request from near Clonmel for over 1,000 sandbags. The Defence Forces worked through the night to make sure that happened by the morning.

It also involved the provision of pumps and maintaining pumping infrastructure, trying to give people and volunteers a break from what has become exhausting work for a lot of them, delivery of fodder for livestock - I will discuss agriculture in a moment - and assisting the OPW with air inspections of rivers and coastal areas. As of yesterday, 2,686 members of the Defence Forces have been deployed. In addition, 428 Defence Forces vehicles have been provided to support the response effort.

In terms of civil defence, since 4 December around 700 volunteers from the Civil Defence have been activated in a range of flood relief activities, providing vital support for local communities. They have filled, distributed and deployed sandbags, pumped flood waters, rescued people from cars trapped in a high waters, assisted in the evacuation of families, transported food and fuel, distributed public health notices, checked on elderly people in isolated areas, something which was badly needed in some isolated rural locations, provided transport for health care workers, community welfare officers and postal deliveries and transported children to school in recent days. The Civil Defence is reliant on the volunteer ethos of its members and I want to sincerely thank all of the Civil Defence officers and volunteers for their efforts over the past few weeks. They have worked with hundreds of local authority personnel across many counties.

As Deputies will be aware, the Government approved the allocation of €5 million to be distributed as emergency humanitarian support for small businesses and community, voluntary and sporting organisations which, through no fault of their own, have been unable to secure flood insurance and have been flooded recently. At the request of the Government, the Red Cross agreed to administer the scheme. It is aimed at providing a contribution to the costs of returning businesses to their pre-flooded condition, including the replacement of flooring, fixtures and fittings and damaged stock. Applications for amounts of up to €5,000 are being paid following a rapid verification process, which is essentially a self-declaration process, and over 100 applications have been paid to date. In the event that applicants have incurred significant damages above €5,000, the scheme provides a means to seek further support for an amount up to €20,000. The Red Cross has appointed loss assessors to undertake damage assessment for applications and these assessments are due to start this week. I want to sincerely thank the Red Cross for its co-operation in administering the scheme and for agreeing to administer the expansion of the scheme to community, voluntary and sporting organisations, which was a decision made by the Government last week.

From an agricultural perspective, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has also been closely involved in responding to the many farmers affected by flooding. Clearly, farms in western counties, but also those in the midlands and in the catchment areas of large rivers, in particular the Shannon, have been most significantly affected. The main issues affecting farmers are losses of fodder, damage to sheds and milking parlours, flooded lands, serious animal welfare issues in a number of cases and, in a very small number of cases, the loss of stock to the floods through drowning. My Department has responded as swiftly as it can. On the animal welfare side, the animal welfare helpline has been operating throughout the period of the floods, including on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Approximately 100 flood related calls have been received to date.

Teagasc carried out a survey of flooded areas on 21 December, and as a result personnel from my Department undertook to immediately inspect up to 80 farms to assist them with the pressures they were under. Arrangements were put in place for the farmers concerned to collect supplies and feed from local co-ops under the existing Department emergency feed provision arrangements. The Air Corps and Defence Forces also assisted in the airlift and transportation of emergency feed supplies to some very isolated and cut-off farms in south Galway.

I want to thank volunteers for their role in helping us to do this work and, in particular, the role of farming organisations and the IFA which have been of significant assistance in co-ordinating responses and helping us to find and assist farmers that have been in real difficulty. People who know the ground are of real assistance, as are Teagasc and the farm advisory service.

Emergency feed provisions on animal welfare grounds are continuing. Almost 300 tonnes of concentrate feed have now been provided to over 100 farms, helping to avoid welfare issues from arising. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Teagasc personnel are continuing to visit farms affected by floods. We are showing as much flexibility as possible in terms of the inspection requirements that we are obliged to undertake. In effect, farms that have significant flooding have been shown total flexibility in that regard.

A number of the rules around the movement of animals have been relaxed where their welfare is threatened. This is to facilitate the temporary movement of livestock where needed. In some of the worst affected holdings, slurry storage tanks, which normally have capacity for the full winter period, have now been filled because of very intense rainfall. We have agreed guidance with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on how farmers should deal with that situation.

In regard to the current targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, TAMS, we want to prioritise farmers affected by floods and who have had buildings or facilities damaged to make sure that they get financial assistance and grant aid under TAMS as a priority. Teagasc is fully engaged in helping affected farmers through this difficult period and has provided a dedicated advice helpline, which I encourage farmers to use. Advisers are providing critical guidance to farmers on protecting animals at risk, minimising the impact of flooding and making the best use of available forage to maintain healthy livestock. In truth, this is a team effort. It involves farming organisations, neighbours, farmers, Teagasc and the Department. A group of us travelled on the back of a trailer to visit farms in the past number of days. Everybody was trying to do his or her best in terms of bringing something different to what is a very difficult situation.

Deputy Cowen asked about the fodder aid scheme. The details are on the Department's website. People who have lost fodder to flooding will get its full market value from the Department. We want to receive applications by 22 January. We set a tight timeline because we want to get money to farmers quickly to compensate for losses. We are also finalising another scheme, whereby farmers who have experienced severe losses or damage to buildings and stock in those buildings will also be able to get financial compensation. That scheme will be finalised in the next number of days. I met a farmer who lost 47 sheep to flooding. We will compensate him in full for the livestock lost. Other firms have specific concerns and problems, and we are finalising a scheme that can help them.

Whether one is a home owner, farmer, small business owner or is worried about flood management in the future, it should be noted that there has been a major focus by Government over the past ten weeks or so in terms of learning lessons from and responding to this crisis, and redoubling our efforts try to make sure that we put supports and policies in place that can reduce the risk of damage we have experienced over the past ten weeks from happening again.

I want to clarify a point for my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Kelly. The money local authorities are spending on repairing infrastructure following floods is extra money that he is putting in place. It is not coming from existing budgets. Likewise, in terms of the repairs the Department of the Agriculture, Food and the Marine will have to carry out for piers and harbours that may have been damaged, we are currently going through an assessment process and will revert to Government to look for an extra fund, if necessary, to carry out such work, just as we had to do a number of years ago.

The first lesson we must learn is that nature is very unpredictable and it is very hard to foresee fully where the next problem will arise. In 2014 we had the unfortunate coincidence of a high tide and the top of a storm at exactly the same time. If it had been six hours earlier or later it would not have caused half the damage it did. We should also recognise that unusual weather events may be becoming more frequent. I do not know. They are not unique. I do not know how many people are aware of the night of the big wind. The poem says: "Ar Oidhche Cinn an Dá lá Dhéag beidh cuimhne grinn go héag." It was 5 January 1836. Whether it was caused by global warming or not I do not know, but any account of the night of the big wind tells us it was an exceptionally violent storm. Therefore, I am not innocent enough to believe we can protect against everything. However, I do believe there are steps we could take to minimise the potential damage.

For those who have been personally affected, and who continue to be personally affected, with regard to access to houses or having to move out of houses, as some people's houses were flooded but the issue for other people is they cannot access theirs, the first thing we need to do is proceed as fast as possible to deal with the clean up as the flood subsides. This is also with regard to people whose businesses have been damaged.

We must examine whether any of this was avoidable. This issue arises particularly with regard to where the level of rivers is controlled. Three rivers spring to mind, and these are the Lee, the Shannon and the Corrib. We have to investigate whether lakes were higher after a very dry October than they needed to be. Had there been too much worry about it continuing to be dry in November and were they left too high? An electricity argument cannot be made with regard to the Corrib. It is controlled by a weir in Galway. I have to say there is a lot of rain in the west but in all my years I have never seen the Corrib as high as it has been for the past eight weeks. It is now beginning to go down rapidly because the gates are open, but there is a need for the OPW, which controls the gates, to answer whether, in hindsight, it kept the lake too high at the end of October in a contingency against continuing dry weather. Whatever damage continuing dry weather might have done in the middle of winter, and it was unlikely, a deluge was going to do much more damage. We must see what could have been done to avoid this.

If we are to be systematic, the next issue we should deal with is to examine all of the roads which have been flooded. Some were flooded to the level of a foot or two and some to levels of between five and eight feet. We should first consider the very easy cases which constantly flood to a very low level. These roads are not damaged, and when the water goes away they are as they were before. We should provide money to local authorities to resolve these issues. In some cases it is as simple as raising the road a few feet. In other cases much more substantial works need to be carried out. It is fair to say the local authorities in the counties affected now have a great marker of all the roads liable to flooding and much of this could be solved once for all.

The next issue we need to look at is drainage. As the Minister and I know, in the old days every winter farmers went out and cleaned every drain on their farms. This is a fact. Once the winter work started it was mainly cutting hedges and cleaning drains. This no longer happens and therefore the land holds more water. When the rain comes the land is already wetter. We need to look at whether grants should be restored. I do not care about the arguments against it, because it did not do any harm to fish or wildlife when all of the drains were cleaned. There was much more abundance than there is now. With all the fantastic modern small equipment available, we need to consider whether we should facilitate farmers in cleaning their drains. Another question we must ask is whether it is environmentally balanced to state farmers need planning permission to drain their own land. This is effectively the situation in many parts of the country. It is not planning permission for which people go to the local authority, but they know they must get permission to dig drains in their own land. I am not talking about building big rivers, I am talking about draining land.

Many rivers are no longer cleaned, and branches of trees and every kind of thing gathers in them. In the old days these were cleaned. Farmers should have responsibility for drains and small streams, local authorities should be financed to keep smaller rivers from obstruction and the bigger rivers should be maintained by the OPW and should be kept free from obstruction. We know they silt up and that all sorts of things get into them, and then we wonder why, when a big storm comes, we have big problems.

A major problem in limestone areas is swallow holes. We need to clean every swallow hole in the country. I do not know whether the Minister saw on Facebook the picture of my local football pitch in Clonbur. For 24 hours it was literally under water. The pitch and car park were destroyed. The water was gone 24 hours later, but it left destruction in its wake. What happened was the swallow hole could not take the water. There is a belief the swallow hole is not as clear as it used to be, and what would be found in it if it was cleared would be interesting. The National Parks and Wildlife Service should be forced to deal practically and pragmatically with this, because it does not do the environment any good not to have available a natural escape for the water.

Over the next week or two it is important that the OPW and other agencies sit down with each of the 260 householders who were flooded to decide, as we decided in 2009, on whether remedial works or relocation is required. People should be given an option of one or the other. In many cases the houses which flooded were built long before planning. I do not know whether the Minister will do a survey on when all of the houses which were flooded were built. There was talk about recent bad planning. In my experience many of them predate planning when people were very careful to build on dry land. Traditionally people knew what land did not flood. It has now flooded and they cannot be penalised. It would be interesting to analyse the planning date of every house which was flooded. People would be surprised how few of them are of the modern vintage and how few of them were built in what would have been considered a flood plain. None of the houses I dealt with involved bad planning and the flooding could not been foreseen. It is important we get the facts on this before people start rushing to judgment. We need a scheme whereby people know clearly whether they will have works carried out so it does not happen again or whether they will be relocated. We did this in 2009.

Remedial works do work. When the OPW eventually gets to do the job it is competent, but it has to go through too many processes to get there. Claregalway was flooded in 2009. This year, no house there flooded because of remedial works, including an additional eye in the bridge, but the second part of the works has not happened yet. All summer I chased the OPW, which had to go through an extra hoop to get at the job. We need to introduce a quicker system of getting these works done as there has been an underspend by the OPW because the processes are so drawn out that we cannot get the work done in time.

The lack of flooding in Clonmel, Claregalway and many other places on this occasion shows that the investment we started has paid off and is effective. It proves that much of the destruction we have seen in recent weeks is preventable in the future.

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