Storm Chandra: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-10 ============================================================ Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, to the House. The Minister, Deputy Browne, was also welcome to the House. I know Storm Chandra has had a significant effect in the Minister's constituency. I raise an issue on which I called for a debate ahead of the most recent flooding. I have been looking for a debate on this issue for a long time because I believe the protocols need to be re-examined and I am glad that is happening. I do not believe the necessary joined-up thinking exists between Met Éireann, the local authorities, the emergency response group and Government in general. When an emergency happens, they all click into place and they do a good job, by and large. Given what we have experienced in recent years, that needs to be homed in on and fine-tuned. Clear and understandable protocols need to exist. As Members of the Oireachtas, we should be aware of those protocols because clearly we are leaders in our communities. When natural disasters like the most recent one happen, the people called in to comment and to act as liaisons and advocates for communities are Members of the Oireachtas and councillors. We need to be on top of these issues ahead of it happening, so we have a clear understanding of what happens and what is expected of us. In scenarios like this everyone clubs together. I experienced that in a direct way on 4 January 2014 when Lahinch, County Clare, along with much of the coast of the west of Ireland was hammered with massive waves. The damage done to the streetscape, the promenade, homes and facilities along the west coast, particularly in Lahinch and other parts of County Clare, was immense. It was a time when there were not resources in the country in the way there are today, but they were found. I am glad to say that the end result in terms of the facilities now available in Lahinch in the context of the streetscape, promenade, sporting facilities and playgrounds and rock armouring is way ahead of what was there before 2014. There was €12 million spent on rock armouring at the time and between €8 million and €10 million was spent on the streetscape, promenade, railings and lifeguard facilities. Another €7 million or €8 million was spent between the playground and the leisure centre. It is wonderful now to see it, particularly last weekend with people using it on a nice, calm Sunday. The point I will make is that coastal protection is not at the level it really needs to be at. We have been talking about river flooding and overtopping and so on. They are extremely important. The protocols and understanding of major incidents like these need to be understood, but the investment needs to happen. I absolutely support the flood relief scheme in Enniscorthy and in the other areas because I have seen the benefit in Ennis of the investment in recent years. It has really worked. There are many parts of our coastline that are vulnerable, and they need hundreds of millions of euro of investment. I believe we need to substantially increase investment in coastal protection. I am sure there are many projects in the Minister of State's constituency. We are an island nation, and we need to protect our coastal communities. They are an important tourism product. We do not have huge amounts of natural resources in this country, but the resources we have are our céad míle fáilte, our tourism industry, our beautiful landscape and so on. We need to protect it. I thank the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Browne, for coming to the House this evening. It has been a difficult period. I know some local authorities are excellent and others are not so good. Some local authorities are well funded, and others could do with more funding. We need to synchronise all of that. We need to have a standard approach and ensure that resources are not an issue. To be fair to the Government, over the past week or two I think resources were made available when resources were needed. Caps were lifted and increased when that was necessary too. I again thank the Minister of State, and I suggest we resume a further discussion on this, maybe in three months' time when the new processes and procedures are worked out. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-10