Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I join with Deputy Collins in extending every sympathy to those who have suffered from the floods across west Cork. I am very familiar with many of the towns, villages and areas the Deputy mentioned. Deputy Collins is right that it is devastating when one wakes up in the morning to see ones house or business flooded. It is particularly worrying in places such as Skibbereen where extensive investment of some €20 million was invested in flood protection measures. Despite all of those best efforts still the streets and houses were flooded. We saw it again in Clifden yesterday. We are seeing extreme weather events that are a cause or function of climate change, which means what was once seen as a one in a 1,000 year event is actually happening every two or three years. The severity is also beyond any projection and becomes increasingly difficult to counter because what is happening is beyond compare, due to climate change.

Yes, the Government has considered looking at flood measures. From my recollection, we have passed special motions within the Cabinet twice in the past three weeks to agree additional funding. This will continue and we will look at it again. With regard to those businesses and householders, this is through no fault of their own and it is important that we manage it.

There is a particular issue around insurance and flooding. I am aware that in my constituency it is increasingly difficult for many people to get insurance because of areas that are routinely flooded. Deputy Doherty and others have been questioning how we manage the insurance industry. There is the whole issue of how insurance is provided, what the rules and regulations are, and what the guarantees and protections are, which is particularly important. I hope the new legislation on the regulation of insurance will help in that regard.

More than anything else, we need to take a really big view on managing this project. We need a national land use plan. Central to that is looking at how we develop and manage our land, our forestry, our farming and planning and development, including where we put houses and the sort of infrastructure we put in place. We should take a long-term view, knowing that climate change will lead to more extreme rainfall events. We should try to use nature to help us in that regard so the flow coming down off the mountains is actually held back in order that we restore our wetlands, bogs and the ways water is stored rather than in the bottom of someone's home. We need to really think big and long term. This problem is not going to go away. In some instances it can be addressed by short-term engineering fixes but the best long-term fix, to my mind, is us collectively and as communities managing our land and using natural systems to help store, stall and hold back water. That is probably the biggest, best and more economically effective way for us to protect our people from severe flood damage.

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