James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my constituency colleague, Deputy Stanton, and my neighbour, Deputy O’Sullivan, in their words on the devastation in east Cork and the Minister of State’s area of west Waterford. It caused hundreds of millions worth of damage. We have a hospital and a Garda station destroyed. Hundreds of homes are flooded. Midleton Main Street is devastated. In Mogeely, Killeagh, my home parish and community, Inch, Castlemartyr, Ladysbridge, Whitegate, Rathcormack and Cloyne, millions of euro of damage has been done to public infrastructure, homes and businesses.

It is a great shame I only have 90 seconds to advocate for those people in Dáil Éireann tonight but in that limited time, I beg the Government to do everything it can. I welcome the news from Cabinet today and we appreciate the support the Government has given to date.

Other matters need to be dealt with, including flood relief schemes. The schemes in Rathcormac and Midleton are pretty advanced and will need to be expedited urgently for them to be completed. This is something we need to do to prevent those communities from experiencing this devastation again. In other areas, there is great urgency for emergency funds to be allocated for road and transport links.

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