Flood Risk Management Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-14 ============================================================ Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City I thank the Senator for raising this important issue and providing me with the opportunity to clarify the role of my Department and the local authority sector in relation to flood response. I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Browne. My Department is mandated to undertake the lead government function for the co-ordination of a whole-of-government response to exceptionally severe weather events. The national directorate for fire and emergency management, NDFEM, carries out this function within my Department, as assigned under the strategic emergency management framework. Local authorities are designated with the responsibility for the response to severe weather emergencies, including flooding. It is widely acknowledged that local authorities consistently demonstrate both leadership and capacity in dealing with severe weather incidents. All local authorities prepare and operate individual severe weather and flood plans, relevant to their local flood risk and response capabilities, that guide their response to flooding and other severe weather events. After Storm Éowyn, my Department undertook a comprehensive review of severe weather and flood plans across all 31 local authorities. The review identified a wide range of good practice but it also highlighted variations in structure, terminology, clarity of roles and varying level of operational detail. Examples of good practice have been circulated to support learning and continuous improvement in the evolution of local authority plans. This was followed by a workshop aimed at strengthening severe weather and flood plans in November 2025, attended by all local authorities and other relevant agencies. Local authorities have now been tasked with reviewing and updating their plans. These will be reviewed in 2026 by the NDFEM as part of the ongoing national preparedness and assurance work. In the context of my Department, a number of measures were taken in advance of the 2025-26 winter season to ensure a co-ordinated response to severe weather and flooding events going forward. A priority following Storm Éowyn was the development of the community hub concept into community support centres. Guidance on community support centres was issued by the national directorate for fire and emergency management to all local authorities in June 2025, and it was updated in December 2025. A further review will take place in quarter 2 2026 to incorporate learnings from the recent winter season. Community support centres were activated in Donegal during Storm Amy in October 2025 to assist impacted communities. A community support centre was also activated in Aughrim, County Wicklow following flooding in January 2026. In addition, local authorities have undertaken a procurement process to obtain mobile generators in conjunction with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. These generators will be available to be deployed rapidly when required to support community support centres. To facilitate the operation of the generators at individual community support centres, the installation of a changeover switch is required to enable the premises to switch from mains power to the generator. My Department is providing funding to all local authorities to enhance the resilience of designated centres through the installation of a suitable manual changeover switch that can be utilised with the local authority mobile generators funded by the Department of Community and Rural Development and the Gaeltacht. All local authorities prepared for this winter season, increasing supplies of sandbags and salt for road treatment. Programmes of clearing debris from gullies, etc., have been managed through the past number of months. The sector has worked with local contractors, such as forestry and agricultural contractors, to formalise arrangements for the speedy activation of road clearing and other services when required. The sector also continues to work with the Department of Transport and TII to co-ordinate winter preparedness for road networks, including availability of salt stocks for local authorities as necessary throughout the winter season. My Department continues to engage with all relevant sectors on the co-ordination of the response to severe weather and major flooding events, maintaining a close working relationship with the local authorities and co-ordinating appropriate response arrangements as necessary. Local authorities are the first responders. They are the ones that receive the calls when roads are flooded or trees are down. The local authorities are the first responders, but I will come back to the Senator in this regard. --- 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/2026-04-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-14