Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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462. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will clarify the rationale for Met Éireann not providing flood forecasts or warnings for floods to the public via its website or broadcast media; the plans to make provision for the dissemination of this information to the public; if he will provide a full update in respect of NFFWS services capabilities to provide warnings for specific locations to the public; the costs to date of developing the NFFWS; and the allocation of resources available for it in 2025. [13774/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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During Stage 1, the initial set up phase of the National Flood Forecasting and Warning Service (NFFWS), under the oversight of OPW, a Flood Forecasting Centre was established in Met Éireann and became operational in early 2024.

Met Éireann’s Flood Forecasting Centre is successfully providing information and guidance to decision making stakeholders such as the Local Authorities, the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management and other agencies, who have received training to enable them to interpret the information and use the software system. The service being provided operationally is tailored for these stakeholders and provides valuable information regarding the likelihood of river and/or coastal flooding. This information protects the public from flood risk as it is utilised by these emergency management stakeholders to manage flood risk and make decisions pertaining to emergency response measures.

The focus for the information developed during Stage 1 of the establishment of the NFFWS, overseen by the OPW, was to provide information support to emergency management decision-makers. Further development of the NFFWS, including Ireland’s network of hydrometric observation systems, is required to support a public flood warning service. The NFFWS Service developed under Stage 1 is not at the level of maturity required to provide warnings for specific locations to the public.

Proposals and recommendations for the further development of the NFFWS, including resource requirements, are being prepared under the oversight of the OPW and will be brought to Government for consideration as soon as possible.

Total expenditure to date on the establishment and development of the Flood Forecasting Centre at Met Éireann is €6.9m. An allocation of €4.3m has been made to the Flood Forecasting Centre at Met Éireann for 2025.