Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I praise the men on the ground in Galway, as well as some women who were there, who reacted to the flooding that happened. I will come to the flooding itself, the council's response and, more importantly, the response from the Department. My purpose in raising this is that we can learn, we can prevent future incidents and we can clarify precisely what resources are available to help Galway city and indeed the county. I have shocking pictures of the damage done in Leenane in County Galway. I praise the council employees on the ground. Rinne siad obair na gcapall ar an oíche. I also praise the Civil Defence. I pick these out in particular because I will be very critical of how the management handled the flood on the night. The fire brigade had to cope with a person going into the water at 7 p.m. It saved that person. Many things happened with which the people on the ground to deal. The workers had to cope with extraordinary difficulties. I was there at 6 p.m., went home at 2 a.m. and came back again in the morning. I also praise the work that happened the next day. It was brilliant. People went door to door and did everything right.

On the night in question, I could not find who was in charge on the ground for a long time. I have an office which flooded, although that is immaterial. Many businesses and houses were destroyed. I could not find out who was in charge. Traffic continued to go through the floods on Fr. Griffin Road, down the docks and so on. Nobody took charge on the night in the immediate aftermath. I saw a report from the council that was eventually produced for the council meeting six days later and which was given seven hours into the meeting. It outlines a number of things which I will not go into in detail. The final paragraph of the report really concerns me, and I draw the Minister of State's attention to it. It is called learning and recommendations. It stated that a full inter-agency review of recent weather events should be carried out. I would have thought that would have been carried out already. There is discussion about the storms, Ophelia, Brian and Eleanor and how a review should be carried out, and not only that it should be carried out, but how agencies are giving themselves three more months to carry it out. The report states that agencies should develop an emergency response plan for the management of future flood events. I would have thought that was in place. It is a recommendation of this report to take actions such as the issuing of sandbags, temporary defences, traffic management and notification to the media. The recommendation corroborates my experience on the night that nobody was in charge. It certainly happened after the event. My criticism is of the senior management of the council and the gardaí. The traffic going through the flooded streets added to the chaos and increased the damage.

Further, the actions taken as a result of pressure in Salthill over the last years saved that area to some extent, whereas in the city, the car park in Jury's Inn was under flood water, as were Flood Street and other streets. There was a very high tide but anybody could see that there was a high tide at 5 p.m. The wind blew up but there was a warning. It is extraordinary. The report of the meeting is a blaming game, not by me but by the city manager, blaming the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. He said that the Department issued a warning but did not tell Galway. That was the response and the city council was omitted from that. Will the Minister of State clarify the Department's reaction with regard to resources being provided for those who have suffered in Galway and the county? What report does the Minister of State have? What is the extent of the damage?

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