Flood Relief Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

I appreciate what the Minister of State is saying. I also appreciate that the Minister of State was not in office during the eight years I am talking about. However, his Cabinet colleagues were. We lost a lot of time when no schemes were delivered. That is the problem. In 2024, three schemes were supposed to be delivered but none were.
I want to go back to the national flood forecasting and warning service. Less than €6 million of the nearly €20 million allocated has been delivered. As I said, this is a project that has been going on for ten years now. The Government agreed to establish the national flood forecasting and warning service. In the meantime, only one stage of the plan has been delivered, meaning we are currently stuck with an out-of-date and inaccurate warning system that does not even take ground conditions into account. Communities have been failed by the Government's lethargic approach to delivering a comprehensive and modern flood forecasting and warning service.
I know the Minister of State was not in government during this period but his colleague, the Minister, was. He was on national radio talking about allocations and all the rest. The people who were flooded do not give a rat's about that. I will not say what I was going to say. They want the Government to deliver. They cannot understand. This was to be announced ten years ago. Money is not being provided. The delivery of this service is not there. It is not good enough.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12