Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I appreciate Deputy McDonald raising this issue. I was surprised that nobody raised it on Leaders' Questions given the urgency of it and the importance of it. Fifty-six schemes have been completed and a further 100 schemes are at different stages of development. I am blaming nobody and have not blamed anybody other than the fact that we are experiencing severe weather events more frequently. Weather is changing and patterns are changing, resulting in very high and elevated levels of water across the land. Climate change, in my view, is responsible for the rapidly changing weather patterns we are experiencing. Every event we evaluate, as we did after Storm Éowyn. A very significant action took place after Storm Éowyn, but that was a different kind of storm. In my touring around the country on Monday, travelling to various spots, it was interesting that the Aughrim event was different from the Enniscorthy one. Each had their different local manifestations. It is important, yes, that we get better at bringing the national frameworks closer to the local manifestations of the various weather events.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04