Flooding in the past few days has left many parts of County Cork devastated. People's homes and businesses and roads have been destroyed. Areas such as Glandore, Rosscarbery, Clonakilty and Castletownbere have been badly hit once again. Areas such as Midleton, I was told this morning, are like a disaster zone, with a shortage of professional help from anyone, leaving locals having to do the clean-up themselves.

The underspend on the roads budget is coming home to roost, as rivers are blocked due to a lack of clearing. A lack of roadside workers due to funding restraints has left many drains blocked and roadside gulleys without clearing. Having this funding and workers will not prevent all flooding issues, I accept, but it will go a long way. The Taoiseach and Ministers are in Cork today. They should have been there three years ago, with works now completed, and not just there now, as always happens, for photoshoots after floods. In many tweets in the past few days, politicians have told people there is an humanitarian assistance scheme, which, I may add, is means tested, meaning many affected will not qualify. For communities who need immediate funds, will this emergency funding be made available this week?

One month's rain fell in a number of hours. That will have extraordinary impacts; there is no doubt about that. We do need flood relief schemes in place and they are at various stages. As the Deputy knows, the Bandon one has been especially effective. The Civil Defence, for example, is a volunteer organisation that was out yesterday and we should salute its response. It had pumping, sandbagging and transport for evacuees and it set up rest centres. It had general assistance for homeowners and businesses and has crews and equipment on the ground. It brought boat crews, vans with camp beds and sleeping bags and 4x4 vehicles. It was on the ground again this morning and it will continue to provide assistance. The Army was also on the ground this morning and provided personnel and two 4x4 vehicles for the emergency transport of nurses to and from Mercy hospital in Cork last night. The Defence Forces are engaging on an ongoing basis with the relevant local authorities and attended a cross-agency co-ordination meeting this morning. Likewise, the Garda is highly involved. I single out all those forces for the work they are doing.