George Lawlor calls for unified flood gauges and stronger local resources

Thank you, Kai Herlach. Ministers, thank you for being here this morning and thank you to Minister Mourne in particular for his visits to Wexford to view the devastation in Enniscorthy in particular. I know it's somewhere that I met with you last April as we looked to devise a new plan after the rejection on environmental grounds of the... Oh, sorry, I'll move the amendment, Kai Herlach, thank you. I move our amendment. Yeah, I'd like to thank you. We met last April, it was, in Enniscorthy to outline with the OPW the new plans for a new application for a flood relief scheme that is so badly needed by the people of Enniscorthy, as you know. For decades now, this town has suffered on, I won't say an annual basis, but very, very regular. I know Joe Burnley and Bernie Sadlery on the quay in Enniscorthy has been flooded 16 times, such as the devastation. One of the things I'd like to raise with you, Minister, and perhaps you could investigate it is, and I'd ask the question that's been put to me, is why aren't all the state-operated water level and tide gauges on the same portal? We have waterlevel.ie operated by the OPW and the Marine Institute operate their real-time observations on tidal issues. This type of silo thinking that the OPW looks after inland and the Marine Institute after the sea is a perfect example of how we need to bring this together. If you consider the town of Enniscorthy, tidal up to Enniscorthy bridge from Wexford harbour, but then you have the Slaney coming into it, and two different agencies appear to be operating the portals with regard to tide levels and gauges. I think that's something that we really need to investigate, particularly in a place like Enniscorthy, which is essentially covered by both. Enniscorthy, of course, was the focal point of the flooding in Wexford, given the devastation there. But we also, as you know, saw devastation in Bonclody, where many houses were flooded. In Bridgetown, which has been flooded in the past and was flooded again. In Kilmore, in Our Lady's Island, places that have seen flooding, I think it's 60 years since Bonclody was flooded. Bridgetown was flooded only a few years ago, badly flooded on Christmas Day, brought devastation. We saw Our Lady's Island Lake overflow this time, and also flooding in Kilmore, where some of the local businesses suffered there badly. Our amendment calls for extra resources to be given to local authorities to hire more general operatives to ensure that staff are in place to maintain and clear drains, culverts and ditches, and respond quickly to weather events. I've spoken to you about this, and also to provide grants to local authorities to purchase the emergency flood protection equipment, such as the aqua dams that came, thankfully, through your intervention from Westmead County Council downtown Enniscorthy. These should be in every town and village available to the local authorities via the fire service, stored in depots that are owned by the local authorities that can be deployed very, very quickly where there is a threat to flooding. And we have enough instrumentation and we have enough information at this point to ensure that we have the knowledge to know when flooding is likely to happen. So if we have these interim measures, I know we absolutely need the permanent solution for Enniscorthy, but for the other areas, if we had interim measures or mitigation measures to allow the people to be protected from the floodwaters. In Wexford Town, we suffer from coastal flooding. These aqua barriers and readily available one-ton sandbags are all types of sandbags being made available long in advance of any flooding arriving. I know Wexford County Council did their best, and nothing could have prevented the devastation that happened in Enniscorthy, even if we had word in advance. But we really, really need to look at our warning systems. Because people in Enniscorthy, whilst the water was devastating and the flow from the River Slaney was devastating, there was people who were seasoned in being flooded, if you like, could have tried to get some of their equipment, some of their furnishings, etc., to higher ground. And instead, they were battling against, literally battling against the tide as they strove to save some of their property. It's been going on way too long, as we know, Minister. But now is not the time for battling each other. We need to work together as a unified front, both at local authority level and governmental level, to ensure that whatever measures are necessary to stop this devastation happening, almost on an annual basis, in places in my own county, to stop once and for all. Good morning. Good morning.