David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Fianna Fáil motion that has been tabled on the important issue of flooding. I am pleased that we have been given an opportunity to discuss this issue. I have some sympathy with Deputy Jim Daly's comments about Fianna Fáil's participation in government. When representatives of a party that has been in government for the best part of the past 50 years come to this Chamber to talk about a lack of short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies to deal with flooding, they should accept some responsibility for what their party did when it was in government. I am not suggesting that no work was done on flood relief over that time - of course some works were done - but I emphasise that serious problems exist in many parts of the country. It is okay to come in and talk about rivers like the Shannon, the Suir, the Barrow and the Nore and places like Thomastown, Banagher and Meelick, as Deputies have already done in this debate, but the time for putting our money where our mouths are is at budget time, when the capital funding is provided to make all of this happen. I remind the House that Fianna Fáil did not propose an alternative budget this year. As we know, the money that has been allocated this year is woefully inadequate. The money that was announced in January 2016 has not been fully spent. That is also to be condemned.

In its alternative budget earlier this year, my party proposed significant investment in flooding and road infrastructure. As the Minister of State will be aware, many secondary roads in villages and rural areas were washed away or subsided during the many floods of recent years and as a result are still not passable. Damage to businesses and homes is another consequence of flooding. We know that the levels of compensation and State support for victims of flooding are not what they should be. We had an opportunity in the recent budget to make a serious investment in capital infrastructure by taking advantage of one of the few flexibilities we have under the fiscal rules. I refer to the rules that allow us to smooth out capital expenditure over four years. For every €1 million that is spent on capital, just €250,000 has to be provided in the first year. The rest of the cost can be spread over the following years. This system gave the Government an opportunity to deal with issues like flooding and roads, but it did not take it.

We have heard examples of flood relief schemes that have been put in place and are working. We have to give credit where credit is due. We need to look at best practice. I invite the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, to come to Waterford city. The Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, will know about the investments that were made along the River Suir. The heavy investment in a flood relief programme along The Quay in Waterford city has worked. We also have flood relief and flood walls along the St. John's River. While we still have flooding in parts of the city - there has been some flooding in all towns and cities over recent years because of the heavy rainfall - we have been spared the type of flooding that was seen in previous years along The Quay in Waterford. Such flooding had a huge impact on many businesses over many years. Such examples of good practice show what can be done. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, to visit Waterford city to see for himself the flood relief measures that have been put in place.

Sinn Féin has not been alone in talking about the need to invest in capital infrastructure. The same call has been made by IBEC, the Economic and Social Research Institute, the Nevin Economic Research Institute, the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, the EU Commission, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and Social Justice Ireland. There are difficulties with the Government's approach to this issue. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, will be aware that I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts. He will recall that representatives of the Office of Public Works recently appeared before the committee to discuss the State's approach to flooding. I was amazed to learn that the interdepartmental co-ordination working group and the steering group have not met very often and that there has been a lack of clarity and urgency regarding the level of action that should be taken. The committee also heard about mapping issues, the effectiveness of the memorandum of understanding with insurance companies and the question of whether we are seeing any real reductions in insurance costs. Many issues need to be dealt with.

I will conclude by saying it is really not good enough for Deputies to come into the Dáil, table a motion and go home feeling good about themselves and thinking they have done their jobs. The time to deal with these issues is when the funding is being provided to make that happen. The funding has not been provided by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. They have failed to invest in flood relief systems to the extent necessary to protect towns, villages and cities throughout the State. That is the reality. We should welcome the success stories, but there are far too many places where success has not been achieved because the necessary investment has not been made. We will not have success unless we invest the necessary moneys at the appropriate time, which is budget time.

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