Over recent weeks we have seen various Ministers, including the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, our Taoiseach and our Tánaiste in different parts of the country where there has been serious flooding, where people have lost their businesses or are in deep trouble and where householders have been flooded out of it, never to get insurance again. We have seen this in Midleton, Wexford and Louth and we saw it in Galway yesterday. I saw the Chief Whip in Galway yesterday - unfortunately, with people crying over what was happening. We have also seen that in Lough Funshinagh, County Roscommon, the pumps are on once again and the people are very nervous.

I will be very clear on this. I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Government of the increased funding of €70,000 and the help being given. I also welcome what the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, said in the announcement he made last week about the River Shannon Callows. I hope he brings that out to the Little Brosna and the River Suck as well.

These are the facts, however. The Minister talked about honesty earlier, and I will speak honestly to him. In 2015, for the people in Lough Funshinagh, the flood started to come up. One house has been knocked already. That happened eight years ago exactly, heading to nine. The pumps are there today, and by February or March, if the rain amounts continue as is, they will be in trouble and more houses will be lost. The slatted sheds are full of water already.

I heard the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, yesterday. To be fair to all Ministers, their hands are in chains with the amount of legislation around them. That is being honest about it. When the Minister, Deputy Ryan, wanted to bring in emergency legislation here relating to the jet engines when we were in danger of running out of power, he was able to do so fairly rapidly and we were able to get it through fairly quickly to make sure our country would have power. Unfortunately, people do not seem to matter as much because we are not able to bring in similar legislation now. With the former legislation, environmental impact assessments, EIAs, appropriate assessments and all the palaver of the habitats directive could be set aside because it was an emergency. The definition of an emergency under the EU habitats directive is a big problem. It should be borne in mind that Lough Funshinagh is in trouble. There are two pumps and another to come tomorrow. The slatted sheds are gone already, and this is early in the year. Generally, it is March or April. I am fully aware of the situation of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. We need heavy hitters to go to Europe. We need to get the definition of an emergency. Is someone who will lose his or her house in March not an emergency? When the works are done to 200 m in Roscommon rather than nine years trying to get works done-----

Thank you, Deputy. We will come back to you.

The people right around this country-----

Please, Deputy.

-----need honesty because that is nine years on the go. Tell that to the people in Midleton and other places.

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for raising this issue. I have never known him to be anything other than honest in representing his constituents, his people and his area. I will begin where he did by acknowledging that it has been an extraordinarily difficult time as regards flooding right across our country. He referred to some of the places affected: Midleton and other parts of Cork, Wexford, Louth, Newry - this has been an all-island problem - and, yesterday, Galway. I saw my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, in Clarinbridge. I watched a man cry on the news last night as he watched his business be devastated.

I very much appreciate Deputy Fitzmaurice's welcome for the supports put in place by my colleagues, including the humanitarian assistance fund opened immediately by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to get payments to people as well as the Minister, Deputy Coveney, today coming yet again to the Government to open an enhanced emergency business flooding scheme that can provide up to €100,000 on the back of a full assessment.

I also note the Deputy referred to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. People are acting as quickly as they possibly can, and there are other ways we will need to come at this. We will need a new national adaptation plan and a number of flood relief schemes to be accelerated, and the Government is fully committed to that. We have seen three storms in a month. If that does not give us an indication of the type of winter we are looking at, and indeed the climate change we are seeing in the world, I am not sure what will.

Deputy Fitzmaurice specifically raised Lough Funshinagh, and I know he has been talking to our colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, with regard to this. I am certainly not going to outline the history of this matter to the Deputy as he knows it very well and better than anybody, but for the benefit of this House, I know that this is going on eight years. I know that in 2021, the CEO of Roscommon County Council took action and wrote to the OPW and said he was going to exercise his powers under the Local Authorities (Works) Act 1949 to undertake urgent works at the lough. I believe he said he was going to put in place a 3 km overflow pipe to the River Shannon. The Government agreed to that request from the CEO in the summer of 2021 and, indeed, we provided €1.7 million in assistance. Deputy Fitzmaurice knows the rest because, unfortunately, about 60% of the total length of the pipe was laid by the end of 2021 and then a High Court judicial review challenge was taken against Roscommon County Council and it stopped works on the site. That is the factual position.

Since then, last December, I know that Roscommon County Council and the OPW agreed to establish the expert working group to try to find a way forward and another pathway to come up with a viable solution. I know that the membership of that group included many different agencies and cross departmental representation, and they have been charged with scoping out the requirements to commission and undertake surveys and investigations to get this issue resolved. My understanding is that the steering group is led by the council but the OPW is on it and is overseeing the work to identify a viable solution to manage the flooding risk at Lough Funshinagh. The steering group has been meeting throughout the year and my understanding is that it is due to meet again this week to discuss progression of the necessary investigations and timelines to get to implementation.

In light of the comments made by Deputy Fitzmaurice and the questions he has asked in respect of European legislation and the risk to life and land, let me take that back to my colleagues and we will revert to the Deputy directly on the matter.

The Minister is correct in everything he has said. I am not having a go at the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. I am talking about legislation. The Minister mentioned the people of Lough Funshinagh. There is a steering group for those people. This steering group looks like it is going to sit for another three or four years with the way it is going. The water is coming. You cannot stop the water. The problem is the habitats directive and the way it is being enforced here or the way Europe is pushing it and enforcing it on us, with EIAs, appropriate assessments and all of that. When the Government was afraid of the country running out of power, it decided it was able to surpass that by not having to do EIAs and appropriate assessments by using power the Government has. Will somebody in government, please, for the sake of the people in Midleton, Lough Funshinagh, in Galway, in Louth or in any part of the country, give an undertaking to go to Europe and explain we need a new definition of "emergency"? If the water is coming, we need to get these jobs done urgently, and while we welcome the funding given by all of the different Ministers, that is basically a stopgap and it will not stop the water coming next year or the year after.

In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, the money is there but he is being brought to court and being blocked in every way you can be blocked. We have to put a stop to what is going on. A total of 200 m, approximately, of a pipe is left to be done in County Roscommon which would save the homes and the farms of those people and it is at a standstill. You would dig it with a digger in a day, but because of what I would call legislation gone wrong, these works are being blocked. Roscommon County Council cannot stir. Will the Minister give the undertaking that his Government will do it, not next year, but now?

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for his contribution. In fairness to Government and everyone else, including Roscommon County Council, there was a view at the end of 2021 that a solution had been identified. Funding was provided and a huge amount of work went into getting to that point, including technical work between the local authority, the OPW, the funding application and the funding provided by Government. Then we hit, let us call it, a roadblock, which was a finding in our courts that sent everybody back to the drawing board.

I take the point the Deputy is making in terms of the urgency and his fear and, presumably and more particularly, that of his constituents that this could go on and on, when it will be that the steering group will actually come up with a viable solution and how quickly we can get on with it. I know it is meeting again this week.

I will undertake to have the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, refer to the Deputy directly on that meeting, the next steps and on some of the issues asked about by the Deputy. He asked if there was an issue of law and a need for legislative change. I will take that question away as well. I take the point on urgency because we have seen really good results in areas in which we have put flood reliefs. I was a Minister with responsibility for the OPW once and I remember Bandon and Skibbereen flooding. There has been real progress made where flood relief schemes have been put in place and I can only imagine this adds to the frustration in communities still waiting today. We will come back to the Deputy on this directly.