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

Since 1995 my town of Midleton has been flooded 11 times. In 2015 and in 2016 the Main Street was destroyed with more than 400 houses and 180 businesses affected. I have listened to a number of speakers here and I believe it is down to resources, local staffing and local knowledge. The lad with the shovel and the JCB for the country rural road is gone. I also have an issue that we do not really know who is responsible for cleaning gullies anymore. Is it Irish Water or the county councils? Who is it?

On flooding, planning and reports, it is grand to be making promises. Midleton, in particular, has been waiting for the 2023 flood relief scheme that was supposed to start. If it starts then I would certainly welcome it. In the past three weeks parts of Midleton have been adversely hit by flooding once again. Youghal was affected by flooding even though some remedial works were carried out there.

I have mentioned this to two other Ministers in the last term here. A CFRAM study in 2013 identified the problems along with solutions to alleviate those problems, but unfortunately that report was shelved and the works were not carried out. The costs to alleviate the flooding were estimated in the range of €25,000 at the time. When the predicted one-in-100-year event happened it affected nearly 200 houses. However, a one-in-100-year event can happen every two weeks or twice in a week. There is a bit of misinformation out there in that regard.

When I raised the issue of local flooding at that time, and the impact it has on families, it really aggrieved me that this particular study had given information that there would be more than 1.5 m of water deposited in one specific area where there are two semi-detached houses and a bungalow. The water actually went to the fascia board and soffit. That could have been prevented. One family lost their family home and will never be back in that house again because it has flooded twice.

I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this motion today. We have to go back to the local knowledge and the common sense approach that the locals know their own areas. They know the pinch points in rivers, they know where the problems are and they know where the trees will be or where the land is boggy. It is devastating for families. Consider the estate in Midleton called Lauriston, which unfortunately is adjacent to a rugby club that is adjacent to the disused railway. The river banks broke, the water went through the railway line and channelled through the stone, which practically wiped out the whole area. We were going to those people and saying that we did not know what was going to happen and that we did not know what the residents' insurance companies were going to do. Another affected housing estate, Forest Hill, is on a hill. I rang the insurance company and was told the area was a flood risk. It is located on a hill equivalent in the height to where I stand now at the back of the Chamber compared to where the Minister of State is currently sitting. That is the difference in the height levels. We need to have a joined up approach on the insurance aspects also.

I am not here to knock. It is about everybody working together but I just wanted to flag the fact with the Minister of State that some studies have already been done and the information is there. It is about resourcing the local authorities in the areas to carry out these remedial and preventative works.

Over the past number of years works in Fermoy thankfully have worked, Mallow is fairly good and I have I mentioned the works done in Youghal. Midleton, however, has many issues at the moment. I have spoken with the area engineers on this. They are appealing for help and funding. The one thing we are very lucky with is the community spirit. The Civil Defence, the Garda and the emergency services all pulled together. If we can pull together in times of emergency surely as a body we can sit down in a committee and pull together to prevent this. Let us be honest, we live on an island that is covered by water. Water is thrown on top of us. If we do not come up with a collective plan, it is never going to work. I appeal to the Minister of State to agree to the motion today. I ask that he does not kick the can down the road and that he let us work together and work for everybody.

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