MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has been criticised by the Opposition for blaming the latest floods on climate change instead of providing funding to deal with the damage and initiating flood prevention works.
Labour Party environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy said the Minister's response was an insult to people's intelligence and represented a failure by the Greens, as a party of Government, to accept responsibility for the lack of adequate preparations.
"Heavy rainfall and consequential flooding are not a new phenomenon, and while of course the impact of climate change on the levels of rainfall in Ireland is something that needs to be tackled, the fact of the matter is that the damage from the flooding in the last few weeks has been so bad because a complete lack of preparedness," she said.
Ms Tuffy added that the flood relief works that were needed throughout the country were happening, at best, at a snail's pace.
She pointed to the 2004 report by the Flood Policy Review Group which was critical of the expenditure nationwide by the Government in 2003 of €19.9 million and which recommended flood relief works for the entire country at an estimated cost of €300 million.
Ms Tuffy said that the Government has had a continued low expenditure on flood relief works with just over €23 million spent last year, despite the provision in the National Development Plan for €382 million.
"At the current rate of expenditure, it will take about two decades for the Government to complete its current programme. This will leave towns like Carlow continuing to bear the brunt of the Government's lack of commitment in preparing for flood events," she said.
Fine Gael's Olwyn Enright described the Government response to the flooding as inadequate and said Mr Gormley's pronouncement will do little to protect areas in danger of flooding.
"The lack of urgency from the Government . . . is shocking when so many homes, businesses and communities are in danger," she said.
Ms Enright welcomed the plan to introduce new planning guidelines for building works, but said it was of little comfort to those who are already in flooding danger areas. "Figures show that the Government is spending very little on flood defence at a time when the risk is greater than ever."
MEP for Ireland South Colm Burke called on the Government to implement an EU directive on the assessment and management of flood risks.
"As far back as October 2000 the European Council established a framework for community action [ on] water policy, which requires river basin management plans to be developed for each river basin district in order to achieve good ecological and chemical status," said Mr Burke.
