Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak again about the flooding in north Louth. The work continues around the peninsula and the Border to try to get the land and houses back to something resembling normal. There is a sense of fear and anxiety around the place because we are looking at grey clouds and we are afraid more rain is going to come. I spoke to a lady this morning who told me her house had been flooded four times over the past week. It is devastating to have to deal with this over and over again.

As we go on with the clean-up operation, I want to raise concerns about the resources of councils or even the inclination of councils to clean culverts, streams and gullies around our country areas. The Cooley peninsula and north Louth are no different from other rural areas. We need the upkeep and the maintenance of our gullies and drains. I am old enough to remember a council worker who used to go around on a bike with a shovel on the back and clean drains and clean the shucks as we call them in Cooley, to make sure that the area was safe. It would not prevent all the damage done over the past week, but it would certainly prevent other flood damage.

I want to highlight the need for a flood relief scheme for the Cooley peninsula that would encompass engineering fixes for flooding from the mountain. We have one in preparation for the sea, but would do not have one for the mountain. We never thought that the mountain would flood us, but unfortunately it has.