Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

One would get the sense from some contributions this morning that our flooding crisis is over and that we should be conducting a post mortem to establish how to prevent a recurrence. The flooding is far from over; in fact, it is only beginning. In Athlone this morning the water level of the River Shannon is 50 cm above the highest level every recorded. In south Galway ten more families were evacuated this morning while it appears that more water will be released downstream from Ardnacrusha. This is an ongoing national crisis and, as Senator Healy Eames said, it is a national emergency.

There is a huge human cost associated with this and, having heard the Deputy Leader speaking in the past, I believe he has a sense of what that human cost is. It is the despair people throughout the country are feeling. This was compounded by the paltry offering of €12 million a couple of days ago to address their concerns. That indicates that either the Government was not aware of the costs people are enduring or, more worryingly, if it was, it was not according them any serious commitment. The level of funding must be racked up immediately and it must be publicised by splashing the information across the front page of every national newspaper and across the screens of every national television station.

It is four weeks to Christmas Eve and thousands of families have given up hope that they will have any type of normal Christmas for themselves and their children. We must immediately tell these people that we are willing to write the same cheques we were willing to write six months ago for our banking system. They must be reassured that their Government is working in solidarity and community with them, something it has not been doing so far.