Flooding fast becoming an election issue - Winter storms

SIX violent storms battered Ireland this year with hurricane force winds and torrential rain, a foretaste of what this country can expect.

And given the lack of government preparedness for such eventualities, it is hardly surprising that rivers are bursting their banks, inundating farmland, flowing down the main streets of towns, causing the evacuation of families from their homes, swamping shops and other businesses with floodwater and sewage, and putting lives at risk.

For years scientists have predicted extreme weather conditions as the inevitable result of global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions and greenhouse gases from sources such as power stations burning oil, gas or coal, plus car and truck exhaust from petrol and diesel, and also the flatulence of an estimated 6.6 million dairy and beef cattle and 4.7 million sheep.

While some continue to adopt the ostrich position, with heads deep in the sands of denial in the face of climate change causing, among other global problems, the seas to rise, no politician worthy of the name can feign ignorance as an excuse for not knowing what is happening in their own bailiwick. With a general election looming early in 2016, the repetitious flooding of farms, homes, cities, towns, and villages is fast becoming an electoral issue, especially for Taoiseach Enda Kenny who has been criticised for not visiting the worst hit areas in contrast with his counterpart in Britain, David Cameron.

The government reaction was that critics should not engage in the politics of photo opportunities. That’s something of a cop-out in the context of a crisis that people up and down the country have faced for weeks. With power comes responsibility and, as the Taoiseach knows, there is much more involved in meeting people when they are in trouble than a photo opportunity.

Normally, with an election only weeks away, his handlers would not be so reluctant to put him before the eye of the camera. Could this mean Mr Kenny is afraid of an angry reaction from a jaundiced public, people fed up to the teeth of being flooded again and again? With little or no insurance, many are facing income problems.

Ireland’s position on global warming verges on the hypocritical. This was seen, for instance, during the Paris summit on climate change attended by delegates from 195 countries earlier this month, when Mr Kenny pledged this country would support measures to combat climate change. At the same time, however, a loud and clear message is going out to the powerful farming lobby that “everything will be all right at the end of the day”.

Effectively, the government line is that Ireland is much too poor to accept the concept of agri-cutbacks aimed at reducing cattle numbers at a time when dairy farmers have expanded in anticipation of a bonanza following the abolition of EU milk quotas. With the world market awash with milk, many farmers are now in financial trouble.

Compared with developing nations, Ireland is rich. Yet, in contrast, it is the poorer countries who have committed to costly measures to slow down the pace of global warming.