Flooding crisis: Forecasting service must be a priority

IF anyone was in any doubt about global warming, the extreme weather events of the past month would have proved that it is not just a theory, but an uncomfortable reality.

More than 260 homes around the country have been flooded so far and another 230 are under threat, while 130 houses have been marooned according to the Government’s National Coordination Group. Multiply those figures by 10 to get an idea of the scale of the misery facing thousands of families around the country.

Yesterday, six houses in Athlone, Co Westmeath, were evacuated as the owners gave up a three-week battle to keep rising flood waters from their homes. That is on the top of the 260 families nationwide that have already had to leave their homes, some of them with little prospect of returning.