I rise to speak about the devastation caused by the recent flood events on the east coast that destroyed homes, businesses and entire communities. This latest incident has deeply unsettled people in my area in places like Listowel, Killacrim, Tralee and Kenmare.

In November 2024, Listowel experienced its worst flooding event in more than 60 years. Following that event, the OPW, in partnership with Kerry County Council, undertook emergency work valued at more than €500,000 to stabilise the banks of the River Feale and prevent further breaches. While these works were greatly welcome, one critical element was omitted, namely the installation of an early flood detection alarm system. The latter is an upstream monitoring and alert system that can be deployed quickly without the need for planning approval and that detects abnormal increases in river stages and provides advance alerts of imminent flood risks. The OPW has informed me that this system will be considered for the Listowel full flood relief scheme. Unfortunately, it will be ten years before the latter is completed.

Such a system capable of detecting rising water levels along our rivers would provide immediate warnings to local authorities, community groups and first responders, no matter who they are, giving them the vital time needed to act to protect lives and property. This technology saves time, and time saves lives. With continual rainfall leaving the ground saturated, a status yellow weather warning has effectively become the new red warning.

Communities must not continue to live in fear of the next storm. The perfect storm, which I raised here before, was in Listowel. Two days before the serious flood there, there was a snowfall event. There was a status yellow rain warning for the Friday night, the same night that the temperatures rose. You could say the thaw and the flood destroyed north Kerry. I therefore call on the Minister of State responsible for the OPW to come before the House to debate the urgent need to install lifesaving early-warning infrastructure in flood-prone areas, not just in Kerry but also across the rest of the country.