John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking what I feel is a timely Commencement matter this afternoon on the need for a more specialised and location-specific warning system for extreme weather events in light of the recent flooding experienced in my own county, Waterford, Cork and many other areas.I acknowledge at the outset the utter devastation that businesses and home owners have experienced over the past six days. On Saturday I visited Tallow, Clashmore and Knockanore in west Waterford and saw at first hand the carnage levelled on those areas with damage to infrastructure including roads and bridges. A clean-up was under way after water ran through homes and businesses from front to back and vice versa.

Yesterday heavy rainfall resulted in further businesses and homes in east Waterford being impacted including the Saratoga Bar, Woodstown, and Jack Meades Bar, near Faithlegg. The sense of desperation among those impacted was very visible. My heart goes out to every single one who has been impacted. The Cabinet is signing off on a support package at the moment for those affected. The Minister of State will agree that it must be flexible and agile to ensure the money gets to those who need it most in a timely fashion.

My question is on the need for a more location-specific flood warning system. The national flood forecasting and warning service was established in 2016 with the aim of enabling members of the public and local authorities to take more preparatory actions towards reducing the impact of flooding. Stage 1 of this was due to be implemented between 2016 and 2022 and stage 2 was due to run between 2022 and 2027. However, I understand stage 1 is yet to conclude. Will the Minister of State clarify whether this is the case and will he outline the timelines that will be in place from here on in order that we can have a more localised system put in place?

I understand that as part of stage 1, Met Éireann issues daily flood guidance statements to local authorities but these are on a countywide basis and are not made available to the public. Last week, an orange rainfall warning was issued for all of Waterford but the more heavy rainfall was more specific to west Waterford and east Cork, mainly between Cork city and Dungarvan. Similarly, yesterday an orange rainfall warning was in place for the entire county of Waterford. Thankfully, west Waterford did not receive the level of rainfall it received last week but east Waterford did and was impacted by flooding. Obviously, the bigger the county the bigger the potential divergence between the weather that impacts different areas. Our system needs to be more in line with the UK Met Office where areas are clearly delineated on a map and labelled accordingly. Within a county, there could be a red rainfall warning for a certain area and an orange advisory for the rest.

This morning I spoke to Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather who the Minister of State will know. He sent me examples of the type of warnings in place with the UK Met Office. They area far more appropriate basis on which to base our warnings than the county-by-county basis.

Of course, it is not just rainfall that impacts flooding. It is also saturated ground and water levels. The Office of Public Works, OPW, has about 500 monitors in places across catchment areas that feed in to the advisory note that is issued to local authorities but that detail is not issued to the public. It is only issued to the local authorities and they then have to interpret that. There is a case for that advice to be made on a more public basis and for the advisory warnings to be more location-specific. I would be grateful if the Minister of State would clarify the timelines.