John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Moran. In fairness to him, not alone did he not hide away but he was very happy to meet me before Christmas. We looked at flooding and protection from the point of view of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. We have more work to do on that. I would welcome an update at some stage on efforts to get down and dirty and forensic in terms of knowing where people are and how they can be contacted.

Protection always trumps coming in with the fire brigade afterwards. It is very important that we would keep the focus on that. Building defences is one element of that, as is having good public planning so that we do not have houses where they ought not to be. Most days I travel to and from work along the Clontarf Estuary. I am amused by the idea that a flood defence, a wall, that has been put up is going to be lowered because drivers cannot see the estuary. People must get real about the issues. Everybody wants something different for themselves. I support the Minister of State and public policy to make sure that flood defences come before any other considerations. Drivers should be watching the road rather than looking over the ditch to see the flora and fauna or whatever else.

I have four very specific asks. Perhaps they will form part of what the Minister of State will come back to deal with at a later stage. There needs to be a register of vulnerable people. I refer to people with medical conditions and disabilities that would be affected by an interrupted power supply. The HSE, the Civil Defence, ESB Networks and others must work on that to give solace to those people and their family members in a very practical way so that they know who they are and where they are. A text alert system should be developed to facilitate the notification of deaf or hard of hearing people when a flood event or major emergency arises.

The Office of Emergency Planning must have an Irish Sign Language interpreter on-call. Sign language updates were not given until I made representations, which were responded to immediately, during those couple of days in October. The response of the support services was quite magnificent. I refer to the Garda, the HSE, the fire service and others. There was no sign language interpreter in camera shot until later in the day. Those little things are vital. It is easy to plan such things, it is a case of being thoughtful about them and making sure they are in place. It is important that the Office of Emergency Planning would make sure that happens.The RTÉ1+1 channel can be used. It normally starts broadcasting at 7 p.m., but if it was available around the clock it could be a major source of information to update people on what was happening throughout an emergency period. They are my very practical key asks. Others have rightly lauded the Minister of State for getting stuck in and being with people. He was quite happy to meet me.

I have one almost humorous story which will be of particular interest to Fine Gael. The grandfather of a former Fine Gael leader, Alan Dukes, went to live in Kerry and never became comfortable with the soft weather. He was often noted as saying that if God had intended people to live in Kerry, He would have given them webbed feet. I hope people do not need webbed feet throughout the rest of the country. That is what this work is about.