Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Buckley for raising this important matter. I did meet him in Midleton that Sunday. It was very distressing for the people whose homes and businesses were affected following the devastation caused by the flooding.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is designated as the lead Department for co-ordinating the response at national level to seven scenarios, including severe weather and flooding. The National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management, NDFEM, within the Department is tasked with co-ordinating the response to these emergencies, working closely with Met Éireann, local authorities, which are the lead agency for the response to severe weather, Departments and other agencies following the procedures developed over the years and set out in the document Strategic Emergency Management - National Framework. This includes facilitating collective decision-making and ensuring aligned public safety messaging among a broad range of Departments, organisations and groups that have a role to play in any of the given seven emergency types under its remit.

With reference to the weather systems we have experienced in recent weeks, Storm Babet was an intense, slow-moving rainfall weather front originating in the Bay of Biscay. The timing of Storm Babet's arrival combined with complex coastal, pluvial and fluvial conditions resulted in significant flooding, especially for the south and east of the country. It impacted many parts of the south and south east of Ireland with severe flooding in Midleton, which I myself saw at first hand.

Following a short reprieve, Storm Ciarán was named and tracked towards Ireland and on 12 November, Met Éireann named Storm Debi, which was forecast to make landfall in Ireland on Monday 13 November, tracking from the south west to the north east. This system developed rapidly off Ireland's south-west coast. Storm Debi was characterised as an extremely fast-forming and complex system with the potential for dangerous wind speeds and rainfall.

During these weather events, there was extensive flooding throughout east Cork, along with other parts of the country. In Midleton, the Owenacurra river rose at an unprecedented rate and broke its banks at two locations causing flood damage to the town with more than 100 properties flooded. At its peak, Midleton Main Street saw floodwaters of approximately 1 m depth. The script is wrong. It should read Sunday, 12 and Monday, 13 October. I apologise for that.

It should be noted that significant resources were deployed in response to the flooding across the country involving local authority staff, firefighters, Civil Defence volunteers, members of An Garda Síochána, Defence Force personnel and the Irish Coast Guard with appropriate response vehicles and equipment. I take this opportunity to thank all of those who worked in dangerous and challenging conditions to assist home and business owners, rescue those who were trapped by the extreme floodwaters and those who are now involved in the clean-up and restoration phase post incident. It is across the spectrum. The usual stakeholders were involved: the Civil Defence, the local authority, the fire brigade, the HSE and volunteers. What I saw in Midleton was exemplary and there was extensive community action as well.

When there is an unprecedented weather event, such as the flooding we witnessed, all available resources are deployed to assist the impacted communities during all phases of the event. This can be hugely resource intensive, both in terms of crews on the ground, be they fire or other services.

My colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, is acutely aware of the extreme hardship this has caused in many parts of the country as a result of recent flooding, and the constraints on local government at this time. With this in mind, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has sought Exchequer funding specifically to assist impacted local authorities with exceptional expenditure directly associated with the recent flood response.

A circular has issued to every chief executive in the country, inviting them to make an application with relevant details of the exceptional costs and current expenditure incurred by the local authority in respect of flood response activities. Eligible costs are envisaged to include a variety of areas. A business case may be made for any other costs considered exceptional. As always, the Department will continue to work with local authorities in this regard.

While my Department's focus is on the local authority and its response, officials from the Department also liaised with both the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to request them to activate both of their humanitarian schemes.

The Department of Social Protection's humanitarian flood response scheme supports households affected by the flooding. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment supports small businesses, sports clubs and community and voluntary organisations unable to secure flood insurance and affected by the flooding. Both of these schemes were activated in response to events in Midleton and east Cork and other relevant locations.

See this speech in context