Elvis has left the building. We will proceed to Questions on Policy or Legislation for the week. I call on Deputy Mary Lou McDonald.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I am all shook up.

Communities devastated by flooding are angry about the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to deliver desperately needed flood defences. The Taoiseach might remember that in the wake of Storm Frank in 2015, when he was the leader of the Opposition, he described that flooding as a national emergency. He criticised the then Government for being far too slow. That was 11 years ago, and now he talks about waving magic wands and points the finger of blame at all and sundry. There are now 94 ongoing flood relief schemes, 68 of which have not even gone to planning. That is shocking given the increased frequency of extreme weather events. Where is this national emergency-style action from the Taoiseach's Government to get these flood defences in place?

I appreciate Deputy McDonald raising this issue. I was surprised that nobody raised it on Leaders' Questions given the urgency of it and the importance of it. Fifty-six schemes have been completed and a further 100 schemes are at different stages of development. I am blaming nobody and have not blamed anybody other than the fact that we are experiencing severe weather events more frequently. Weather is changing and patterns are changing, resulting in very high and elevated levels of water across the land. Climate change, in my view, is responsible for the rapidly changing weather patterns we are experiencing. Every event we evaluate, as we did after Storm Éowyn. A very significant action took place after Storm Éowyn, but that was a different kind of storm. In my touring around the country on Monday, travelling to various spots, it was interesting that the Aughrim event was different from the Enniscorthy one. Each had their different local manifestations. It is important, yes, that we get better at bringing the national frameworks closer to the local manifestations of the various weather events.