Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I send my solidarity to all the people affected by the flooding in the last two months, both farmers and townspeople. I visited Athlone at the request of the Anti-Austerity Alliance branch in the area and of Dom Parker, a representative there, and I visited the homes of some of the people affected.

One woman I met, Veronica, was out of her home in 2009 as well. She was fighting to remain in her home in 2016 and she has been campaigning for a number of years for something to be done about the flooding, because this is an annual worry. Every October people are stressed about whether it will happen again. She had a smell of sewage in her back garden and her furniture was piled up in her kitchen.

I also met Philomena, her brother and her 90 year old mother. The only direct State help given to that family was a bottle of disinfectant, to help with sanitation. They have to pay for their own pumps and to replace their heating. The only water infrastructure, they pointed out to me, that has been put in for them since 2009 is a water meter from Irish Water. Can the Minister imagine the irony? That water meter has burst and they said the water charges would be extracted from their dead hands. Those were their words, which they wanted passed on.

I found that people were so grateful that anybody who was elected to anything was coming to see what they were going through. I commend the community for giving the solidarity that they did. What they do not want is politicians looking for photo ops, sitting in boats in a foot of water when there is no need for them to be in boats, then falling out of them. What they want is a serious response from the Government.

I have a few quick questions for the Minister. Why did the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, go to Paris for the environmental summit, only weeks before these events, and tell the world that climate change was not a priority for this Government? It is clear to practically everybody in society that these events are a result of climate change. We have had unseasonably warm weather up until recently and a huge amount of rainfall. We had a debate in this Parliament a few months ago on a Bill with no targets in it. As far as I can see, the parties that are in the pockets of big business will never take action to deal with climate change.

Why has nothing been done since the last floods in 2009? The cost for Athlone, for example, is only an estimated €5 million. It is a paltry sum of money relative to the damage those people have suffered. The budgets of local authorities have been slashed in recent times. How do people then expect that local authorities and public bodies can deal with huge events like this? I have a more pertinent question: why were councillors from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, a number of Independents and, on very rare occasions, councillors from the Labour Party, voting to build on floodplains in the last few years? Those of us who have been on councils have seen this during development plan meetings. Will the Minister issue a directive to councillors in his party in the upcoming development plans that they must not break with professional advice in respect of floodplains?

It is simple to prevent this happening again.

What will the Government do now for the victims with regard to insurance? Insurance companies, such as Aviva which made €1 billion in profits in Europe this year, are in it for profit. They will not insure these people. We need to look at some kind of State insurance scheme for people in flood affected areas.

Will the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, now agree that there must be progressive taxation on wealth and corporations to fund the kind of flood prevention schemes needed throughout the country? It is clear to everybody there must be action on the broader issue of climate change and there needs to be immediate action to help the victims.

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