Flood relief schemes to be treated as critical infrastructure under new laws
Flood relief schemes will now be treated as critical infrastructure under emergency new laws.
It follows devastating flooding in parts of the country during Storm Chandra that left homes and businesses destroyed.
At the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday evening, Tánaiste Simon Harris told his party that flood relief schemes will be treated as critical infrastructure under new emergency laws that will be introduced.
He also confirmed that a new relief scheme to support impacted businesses will have an initial budget of €625,000.
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The emergency response payment has also been activated and is available to households affected by flooding in Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Louth and Monaghan, Mr Harris said.
It comes as the housing minister has accused Met Éireann of "guarding" information around flooding.
Met Éireann has now issued a fresh status yellow rain warning for Wicklow, Carlow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford, with the forecaster warning that further rainfall could quickly lead to renewed flooding.
The warning comes into effect from midnight tonight and will remain in place until midnight tomorrow. The forecaster has warned of localised flooding, river flooding and difficult travel conditions as possible impacts.
With the additional warning in place for the southeast, Met Éireann said that even “modest additional showers” could result in rapid surface flooding and rising river levels due to already saturated ground.
⚠️Rainfall Yellow Warning🌧️
— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) January 28, 2026
➡️Wicklow Carlow Kilkenny Waterford Wexford
⏳00:00 Thu to 00:00 Fri
‼️With catchments already heavily saturated from recent rainfall, even modest additional showers could lead to rapid surface flooding & rising river levels
ℹ️https://t.co/FhFWKx6AbX pic.twitter.com/djPKwht3Bm
The alert follows severe flooding in parts of the east and southeast as Storm Chandra hit this week, with Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, among the worst affected.
Homes were evacuated in the town after what local residents described as the worst flooding in a generation.
Housing minister James Browne vowed to "bring in" Met Éireann, as he accused the forecaster of "guarding" information around flooding.
Mr Browne said he would be seeking a meeting with Met Éireann to ascertain if people in Enniscorthy could have been warned earlier that their premises were under threat.
"I'm really frustrated that some State agencies seem to think that it's their duty to somehow withhold information," Mr Browne told Alan Corcoran on South East Radio's .
"I don't know whether there was a possibility of an earlier warning in this particular situation, and I'll let Met Éireann defend themselves in that respect, if they can. But what I will say is, in general, I think Met Éireann do have to step up their communication.
"We will be bringing Met Éireann in and saying there needs to be an understanding here that information is not to be guarded. Information is to be put out there, and we need to do a much better job of communications."
Mr Browne said that the current colour-based warning system had not worked and that he had had to "crack heads" on the issue of flood warnings when he took office a year ago.
"It's based on a mathematical formula, whereas in other countries, they use the mathematical formula, but then they also make a judgment call and I think there needs to be a greater use of that judgment call as well in terms of being able to warn people what is coming down the line."
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Social Democrats' TD Jennifer Whitmore called the comments "extraordinary".
"The reality is these storms will come more often and become more severe and we need to be better prepared. The minister for housing made an extraordinary accusation on South East Radio this morning with Alan Corcoran, where he accused Met Éireann of guarding information and essentially withholding flood warning information about this storm event."
Met Éireann issued the following response to Mr Browne's comments: “As a line division of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Met Éireann is focused on our role of monitoring, analysing and predicting Ireland’s weather, climate and flooding, and supporting emergency planning responses to weather events, such as Storm Chandra. As such, our services, operations and engagement with all stakeholders are always evolving to meet current and future needs”
Mr Browne's cabinet colleague, Darragh O'Brien, also took aim at the weather service, saying that he did not believe that it would take a decade to put into place a flood warning system.
The claim was made by Keith Lamkin, who is head of the climate services division with Met Éireann.
"Typically, in other jurisdictions, that can take up to 20 years,” Mr Lamkin told RTÉ's .
"At the moment, Ireland is in that first kind of half of that cycle, so it's still something that's in development, but it's not something that's available overnight.
“There are many complicated components embedded in that, that the Government are actively working on."
Speaking later, Mr O'Brien, who served as housing minister for four and a half years, said he did not agree with this.
"I don’t accept it’ll take another 10 years to do that,” he later told RTÉ.
“I know that data exists in that space. It is not fully scientific and maybe not something people can stand over 100pc, but I think we’ll get good indications of the potential for river flooding in particular areas, and the sooner that’s deployed, the better.”
Met Éireann meteorologist Mark Bowe said people must remain vigilant despite a temporary easing in rainfall.
“We are in a bit of a dry slot at the moment, but looking ahead for the next couple of days, especially today and into tomorrow, we are going to see some light patchy rain at times, more significant rain moving into parts of the Southwest,” he told .
“But because the river levels are so high and the land is so saturated, the river levels, the next coming few days, also people should still be quite vigilant even though it has stopped raining.” Mr Bowe said another weather front is expected later in the week.
“We've got a front moving over on Thursday that will bring some more rain.
“So bear in mind that, like I was saying, the ground is already quite saturated, so there's not a significantly longer dry spell, at least over the coming few days for that to happen.”
Director of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management Keith Leonard said conditions were improving in many areas but warned against complacency.
“Hopefully most routes now will have improved and bus services should be back in operation in most areas, but there are still some smaller roads that are closed due to flooding and impacts right across the region,” he told .
“From a public safety perspective we had a number of people who were rescued from cars yesterday so we would ask people where roads are marked off as closed not to use those roads under any circumstances.”
He said assistance remains available to those affected by Storm Chandra through Community Welfare Offices under the Department of Social Protection, which can be contacted on 0818 607 080.
Check out the Irish Examiner's WEATHER CENTRE for regularly updated short and long range forecasts wherever you are.
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