Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am from Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary. In 1912, my grandfather moved from Mill Street after being flooded for three years in a row. He moved 300 yards into the town. Critically, it was a house that was 50 ft. higher above sea level. On 29 December last, 103 years later, Mill Street flooded again.

First, I commend the Minister of State on everything he has done. He was out in the middle of it all, seeing what the problems were when they were happening. He did not send officials out. He went out himself, and that is very important because when I spoke to the Minister of State, and I will do so again, he understood what we were talking about. This is critical in terms of trying to resolve a problem that will face us every year from now on. There is no question about that.

I also wish to express my recognition of, and sorrow for, the misery that has been visited on people throughout the country. The flooding has been ongoing for nearly two months in some areas. Senator Reilly is right that we tend to forget about it. The debate in my council last Monday was about whether it had enough salt for the rest of the year, as the council had used 100 tonnes of salt each night in recent nights. The debate moves on very quickly. However, what is left behind must be picked up by the people who are in the houses that have been flooded and who must deal with the aftermath.

I also commend all the services that were out working on this. The Minister of State referred to this. Many local authority staff were looking forward to a break at Christmas. Indeed, the holidays of most local authority staff finish on 31 December and many of them were taking their remaining leave days over the Christmas period. That all stopped once this problem started, and to a man and woman they got involved. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, was in my home town and in Clonmel on New Year's Day. Staff who had not been to bed at all the previous night were out with him to show him what had happened and to explain the situation. I commend those people along with the voluntary agencies, such as the Red Cross. There is a great group in my area called Carrick-on-Suir River Rescue. It did tremendous work getting people out of their houses. Indeed, its own premises was flooded and it lost much of its equipment. It must be borne in mind that on 29 December 2015, a total of 81 mm of rain fell in Carrick-on-Suir. It was the highest amount of rainfall in the country. It equates to a month's rain for a winter month and it fell in one night. It was going to be difficult for the system to deal with that. I also commend the national co-ordination team and, more particularly, the county co-ordinating teams. They met around the clock and, in my county, the team issued information every three hours.

The work being done by the Government to tackle this issue is important and essential. The Minister of State outlined the amount of money being invested in it. The Shannon did not flood for the first time in 2015. It has been flooding since before the foundation of the State. Many people have made promises about it, but this Government is putting money into it. I know most about my home town. In 1996, I stood in houses along the quays in Carrick-on-Suir with the former Minister, the late Hugh Coveney. We were wearing waders. On that day the late Minister, Hugh Coveney, gave a commitment that we would have a flood scheme. We have such a scheme and it has worked very well. However, on the night of 29 December 2015 it did not work. That was because 81 mm of rain fell. A culvert that is not as wide as the reporter's desk in front of us turned into a 3.5 ft river flowing down the N24 from the Clonmel side of the town into the town. It went in behind the walls and flowed not for an hour or two but for 15 hours. If flowed behind the walls and flooded all the houses we thought were safe. There was another problem. There are subterranean pumps but they tripped out and failed. They were supposed to take the surface water that comes normally and naturally from the flow off. They failed and the water rose and flooded the houses. That was our problem.

The other issue, specifically in my town but also generally, is that Irish Water now has responsibility for storm water and for sewerage. In some towns in this country - I know this because I was present at the start when we installed the sewage treatment plant the last time the Labour Party and Fine Gael were in government - some of the network is mixed up. I will go no further than that, but it is mixed up and must be sorted out.That is a fact. If it is happening in my town, then it is happening in other towns.

The road network has been badly damaged. Springs have come up through roads that never had springs before. I travelled a road not two miles from my house and what I saw was like a geyser coming up. The spring came up almost 3 ft. into the air from the road. Extensive damage has been done and it must be rectified.

I wish to discuss the financial supports that are available. I commend the Government on the work done to provide support and on the fact that €18 million has been made available to local authorities.

We had to take people out of their houses. People in local authority houses were offered accommodation, as were other people. Everyone was sorted out in terms of when they had to leave their houses. The local authority houses will be repaired. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, assured people in my town that the funding would be available and the houses would be repaired. The private houses under insurance will be repaired, but they will not get insurance again.

I was in the house of a 71-year-old widow. The worst flood ever in Carrick-on-Suir and in the country was in 1947. I only know the story of the great snow of 1947 from my late father. He told me how it all melted in three days. In Graiguenamanagh - it may have been the day the Minister of State was there - a 90-year-old man featured in the media. He said the last time he had seen water like it was in 1947. At the time it moved through quickly, because the ground was not waterlogged. In 1947 the highest water level ever was recorded in my town of Carrick-on-Suir.

Senator Keane mentioned local knowledge. In 1957 a woman's father-in-law brought a fisherman to the plot where her family intended to build a house and asked him what level he would advise for building the house. They built the house above the level the fishermen advised and it never flooded. It did not flood in 1996, when the two houses next to it were flooded. However, on 29 December 2015 it was flooded. The woman's flood insurance was removed by her company in 2012 for no reason. She had no flood insurance. The flood insurance cover of the two houses next to her which were flooded in 2009 was restored and the people there can now claim against their insurance, but she cannot claim anything. The Minister of State met representatives of the insurance companies. I call on him to tell them that story the next time they meet, because that is absolutely disgraceful. This woman was left with nothing. Most of her family have gone from the town, there is no insurance and her house was destroyed.

I have some practical suggestions. We can never fill enough sandbags. They are not going to decay or go away. They can be ready in the depots. Every place needed more sandbags. The Minister of State should ensure this happens. When we had a crisis with freezing weather in 2010 there was not enough salt in the country. Some of us began to find out about places in Russia that we had never heard of. We brought in salt, built depots and put the salt in them. Now, we have enough salt for a freeze lasting up to three weeks in Tipperary without bringing in another load of salt. We need pumps on stand-by in every area where there is flooding and they should be stored in the depots. We should not have to go looking for them when a pump fails, as happened in my town; they should be on stand-by. We need to put the finance into these areas. It does not represent a large outlay and we need to do it.

We also need to look at a proper separation between storm drains and sewerage in every town. Above all, we need to go back to what happened. I am referring to tidal water and I realise the Minister of State understands that. I also realise that in some parts of the country, no matter what we do, some fields will flood. In 1997, the late former Minister Noel Davern came to our town when we had the provisions to start the flood relief scheme. I put it to him at a town council meeting that the natural flood plains of the River Suir, which start three miles south of the town, should be put into a set-aside scheme for farmers. Under such a scheme farmers would be allowed to use the land in the summer for grazing and would be paid to allow the water in when the river could not hold it. That would prevent the river from flooding the streets in the town. His response was to laugh at me. I put it to the Minister of State that this is one of the solutions for the River Suir. Such a scheme should be established there, as it has been for many other rivers. I have spoken to other Ministers on the matter.