David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Minister for her response and acknowledge the Cabinet decision today and all of the work that has been done, but there is more to be done. Hundreds of cars were destroyed beyond use on streets and in garages. One man told me that he could have lost €800,000 worth of stock. We need to start thinking about that. Midleton needs to be underwritten because, as my colleague has said, insurance is not possible due to floods. People are excluded from flood claims.

We need an early warning system because this could happen again. If there was a warning system in place, a lot of the damage could have been avoided. Why was an early warning system not in place? We need an early warning system to let people know what is coming so that they can get stuff out of the way quickly. People have been psychologically impacted by what has happened. We need counselling services in place as soon as possible. A hub in Midleton has called for that. If that could be done, it would be a great help.

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