I want to raise the issue of flooding and the State’s response to it. What we have seen in Enniscorthy and the surrounding areas in recent days has been horrific. People’s homes have been destroyed, their livelihoods wiped out and families left traumatised. I genuinely hope the Government steps in quickly and meaningfully to support those affected because people cannot be left to pick up the pieces on their own.

However, this disaster opens a much wider and more uncomfortable conversation about how the State responds to flooding in this country. Ireland has a wet climate - that is not news to anybody. Heavy rainfall is not an unexpected event yet time and again flooding is treated as a surprise and something that needs to be reacted to rather than planned for. Too often it feels like when the flooding is a little too close to home or too close to Dublin the carpets are rolled out but when it happens elsewhere communities are left waiting. When Storm Éowyn hit the west, Connemara was devastated. Places like Clifden and Carna suffered enormous damage yet those communities waited months for proper meaningful assistance. The urgency just was not there. We see the pattern elsewhere. Cork city floods regularly. We know it will flood yet time and again there is a last-minute scramble to protect the city rather than having long-term resilient solutions. Look at Midleton. Although the relief scheme is finally being put in place, it will take years to implement. It is full of interim measures at the moment.

The Minister for housing sought to blame Met Éireann but, with respect, kids in glass houses should not throw stones. The real question is to ask why the Government has failed to put in proper comprehensive flood relief schemes in places across the country. This is no longer just a coastal issue. Even dense inland areas are now expecting flooding. In my own area of Millstreet, which is well inland, we are beginning to see repeated flooding events affecting people’s homes. This would have been unthinkable years ago. Flooding is not a once-off emergency. It is the reality of climate change and it demands proper planning, investment and fairness across the whole country. I am calling on the Leader to ask the Government to have a debate in this House on flooding, flooding preparedness and unequal response experienced by communities across the State. People deserve better than reactive policies when their homes and their lives are at risk.

Before I call Senator Stephenson I would like to welcome her aunt, Nadette Foley. She is accompanied by Julianne and Aileen from the Phibsboro Tidy Town group. I hope they enjoy their visit to Leinster House today.

I will repeat a lot of what Senator Ryan already said on the question of flooding. We have seen the most horrendous floods. There is still high risk of flooding this week. We have serious questions to ask about the lack of a public flood warning system. The Minister for housing was pointing blame at Met Éireann last week, utterly shifting responsibility as if Met Éireann does not fall under the line division of his own Department. I find this Government to be quite effective at pointing out blame for serious Government failures to State agencies without any self-awareness that their own Departments line manage those agencies. It seems to suggest it is evading responsibility. The Taoiseach said last week the Government cannot wave a magic wand when it comes to improving flood defences. No one is asking for that. What we are asking for is long-promised flood defence schemes to be delivered. We have been discussing climate change for years so why is the Government totally unable to put proper mitigations in place?

We hear promises again and again about flood relief schemes. They have been discussed for years. Many of the areas that were badly affected last week, including Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh, have long been promised flood relief schemes. I wonder why those schemes have not been put in place. We cannot pass the buck any more on this issue. People have been abandoned by the State. They do not even have the most basic flood warning systems. Why was the rainfall monitoring system not publicly provided, for example? Flood warning data should be public and easily accessible.

Unfortunately, severe weather events are only going to become more common. This is not news. The impact of climate change is not new. We have been discussing it, as I said, for many years. This gives rise to big questions as to why we have not prepared. It has been a year since Storm Éowyn, but households still have not received the information booklets about what to do when a storm hits that were promised. We need better analysis of what the right solutions are for floods and whether they are being used.

Concrete flood defences simply move the problem downstream. We need upstream flood protection, with natural solutions to allow excess water to rapidly drain away. We need natural forests and flood plains to allow this to happen. For example, the River Nore in Kilkenny city is usually very quiet. In the past week or so, it has been incredibly fast flowing. This has not caused serious damage in Kilkenny because concrete flood defences were put in but places downstream such as Bennettsbridge, Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh have felt the impact of the flood defences being located in Kilkenny. We are literally pushing the problem downstream.

The Social Democrats have been calling for an interdepartmental review of the State's preparedness for Storm Chandra, including in the context of the mitigation actions that were taken in advance. We cannot have another round of lessons learned. We need some credible analysis of what was done to prepare for the flooding and where the gaps were. I appreciate that we will be having a debate on this matter soon. I hope there will be an opportunity to discuss it in more detail.