Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion and the chance for Deputies to raise in the Dáil the issues of flooding, insurance and flood defences. My party colleagues have said a great deal. It is not the first time this country has dealt with flooding. I stand in solidarity with the people of Donegal in terms of what happened but if we cast our mind back to my constituency in east Cork in 2015, it was very badly hit. On two occasions the people of east Cork expressed their grievances about the lack of organisation when they were hit twice with very bad flooding. The N25 was closed for a number of weeks.

A Deputy on the opposite side of the House mentioned maintenance. The good old days of the fellow with the JCB and the shovel cleaning the country roads and the dikes to keep surface water off the roads have disappeared. We are having major problems in rural areas as well.

I want to draw attention to the problems of the aftermath of flooding and the elephant in the room is insurance. I live at the top of the hill in Midleton. It is probably one of the highest points in my town. Behind me are the water works. Just below me is an estate called Forest Hill. One can understand why it is called Forest Hill; it is built on a hill. A man in that estate could not get insurance because of the flooding in Midleton. The entire town of Midleton would have to flood before that happened. That is one of the issues that has to be addressed.

Deputy Doherty mentioned sporting clubs, social organisations and so on. Our own rugby club, Midleton RFC, had nearly 4 ft of water inside it. That club is built adjacent to a housing estate called Lauriston, which was practically destroyed by flooding. Some of the people lost everything. The position is not all bad but there are a couple of points I want to make. On the night that flooding happened I got a telephone call from a friend of mine in Lebanon who could tell me that there was a full lorry load of sand bags in Collins Barracks but as an elected representative I could not get a contact number to get sanction for those bags to be sent to Midleton. These are just some pointers for the Minister.

I thank Midleton Town Council. When we had the town councils we sanctioned our own money from local funding for flood relief for Midleton and thanks be to God, after a lot of wrangling and disturbances, that is going ahead. When local councils are involved they have the local knowledge and seem to work better.

I will leave the Minister with a final thought. When it comes to planning in the future we should look at all the castles in the country. I have not seen too many castles built on a flood plain. That is another pointer. Prevention is better than cure.

The general public, the local authorities, the Red Cross, the Civil Defence and the gardaí have been amazing. When a disaster happens in an area, people pull together. As elected representatives we have to address all these issues and give them the same support people have got in recent years. When people are in dire circumstances, others come together to help them. We have a duty to do the same.

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