Flooding: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19 ============================================================ Kevin Boxer Moran (IND), Longford-Westmeath I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. One theme emerged, namely, all of us working together. It is vitally important that we do not play politics because for the past number of weeks and years gone by, we have all seen the devastation flooding has caused families. While we talk about the water receding, people are trying to get their lives back together. The very thought of rainfall tonight brings back the fear that it may flood again. There has been a lot of talk about what has happened. We launched CFRAM in 2018. When we think of times before then, there was very little money in the country to deal with flooding because we went through recessions and all sorts of problems but we dealt with them. We adopted the CFRAM strategy in 2018. I said at the time that it would be the bible going forward in terms of flooding where we could see the areas that were badly affected and the areas that needed protection the most based on population. What we have seen is climate change. We have seen a severe change that is happening around the world. When I adopted those plans, I travelled the length and breadth of the country meeting local authorities. We achieved that and then had to look for the money. There is not a county where I could not tell Deputies how much of the €1.3 billion that is ring-fenced for flood prevention will be ring-fenced for that county. What changes have we brought forward after my return to Dáil Éireann? When I look at areas from Louth to Enniscorthy that have seen so much flooding over the past number of weeks, I see at first hand what interim measures can do. I know that we worked tirelessly to protect the town of Athlone and, thankfully, the flood defences are there and people see the reward. I have expanded the arrangement involving five local authorities to eight. They are coming to meet me on 2 March. I will work with them to look at interim measures while we deliver the long-term solutions. We have also provided local authorities with staff to drive the delivery of these changes. We have made changes to the minor works scheme increasing funding from €750,000 to €2 million. People talk about blockages in rivers. For the first time, I provided a budget and I will appeal to local authorities to deliver on it. Long before what has happened in the past few weeks, I visited Kerry, Clontarf, Portrane and Strandhill in County Sligo. Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned Lough Funshinagh, which is close to my home. We brought in interim measures in the space of three months to deliver protection for those communities. There is a lot that has to be taken into account. Members come in here and say we should do this and that and reverse the matter concerning the pearl mussel. We will not do that. We build 56 schemes by working with the land and all the bodies. That is how we do it. We do not say it is a matter of one thing versus another for political reasons. That is wrong. My job is as Minister of State and the job of my Department and the Government is to work together with elected representatives and local authorities to deliver schemes. We have a plan. Deputy Fitzmaurice said that for once, we have the money. My job is to work with local authorities to deliver on these interim measures while we wait for long-term defences to be put in place for communities because people have suffered greatly and I do not like what has happened no more than anyone else in the House. We were lucky the two recent big events happened at night. If they had happened during the day, we could have been looking at something totally different. A 90-year-old woman in Dublin was taken out of her house in a brown bin to get her away from the floods. A man over 90 in Enniscorthy was taken out in a boat. Any human being would want to do more but despite what Members might say in the House, there are planning constraints and we have to deal with them and work together. I will bring in changes over the next number of weeks. The purchasing of equipment required to support local authorities was mentioned. This is happening. We are looking at ways of shortening the timeframe for delivering schemes. This is us working together with the local authorities. Members on the different sides of the House come in and say that the OPW is not doing enough. I need every single Member to go to their local authorities and talk to its staff about the schemes and get to know what is involved in a scheme. They should even visit places where we have done these big projects because the one thing that people forget is that 95% of the wall, glass or embankment that we see finished is underground and sometimes under the water. That, in itself, tells us the engineering and everything else that is involved to get it that level. We all talk about Enniscorthy and the way it was affected. In my county of Westmeath, I am thankful that the council's CEO Barry Kehoe acted efficiently with the local authorities working together to deliver the AquaDams. I heard people on the radio say that they did not what an AquaDam was. This is not about me. It is about us all coming together to deliver for these communities. There is a lot more we can do. I hope to host the first flooding conference where I will bring local authorities from around the country together and we can talk to them, look at solutions and drive on. Together we can make it happen. We have to stop fighting and blaming nature. We have to deal with nature and we have to deal with what is coming upon us. While we sit here and stand here, we also have to recognise the resilience shown by communities over the past 20 days. I spoke to some of the farmers who came out with slurry tanks to soak water off roads or pulled cars off roads. People in corner shops that were affected still went down to the road to help their neighbour next door. That speaks volumes. People want help and they want answers. The Government has not been found wanting for support for people through funding for the Red Cross and the other business fund that is available. I have met the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on a great number of occasions to discuss other ways we can fast-track the delivery of flood defences for people. We talk about it being critical infrastructure and it is, but the critical infrastructure Bill will not fix everything, but it will help. The arterial drainage (amendment) Bill is ready to go into the House. That will halve the time in the planning process. When we put stuff into Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, or DPER as well call it, it could be two years there. We have now seen An Coimisiún Pleanála turn around schemes in six, eight and nine months. That is very positive, but it will not do everything. We will still need to put them into DPER, which will continue to deliver with the local authorities. The moneys I announced for the minor works scheme and channel cleaning is a bible to help local authorities up and down the country going forward. I will work with every Member. My door is open. If they have suggestions, do not be afraid to come to me. People say that when there is a crisis, we come in here and talk about. I am not going away from this issue. I am a hands-on Minister of State and I bring energy. We have 100 schemes at different stages. One critical part of that is we were spending €74 million a year. On my return back to this House last year, €102 million was spent on flood defences. That will tell Members the energy that my Department, the Government and I bring to this issue. This Government wants to successfully deliver the flood schemes for the people up and own this country. Go raibh míle maith agaibh. --- 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/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-19