Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Representatives of the Midleton flood campaign came to Leinster House today to present 14,500 signatures to the Minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, OPW. They did so because four months ago, we had a horrendous flood in the Midleton area. Some four months later, most of the families are still living in a catastrophe. We have an incredible situation that many families are still not back in their homes. There is a bureaucratic nightmare in trying to get the funds to be able to fix homes and even when they manage to go through that bureaucratic nightmare with the State, people were told they could get only 50% of the money that was necessary to fix their homes. Threats to their lives are hanging over these people because of the horrendous nature of those floods. One man does not go to sleep if it is raining. He is a human water gauge, watching the river to see if it will inundate the homes again. One of the points the flood campaigners mentioned was that on the day in question, there was no warning system. The European Flood Awareness System supports preparatory measures to provide warning systems when floods are about to break. That still has not been put in place in Ireland. Why is that the case?

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