Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 October 2024
111. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will clarify the rationale for Met Éireann not providing flood forecasts or warnings for floods to the public via their website or broadcast media; and to outline plans to make provision for the dissemination of this information to the public. [40552/24]
View answerThe focus for the information developed during Stage 1 of the establishment of the National Flood Forecasting and Warning Service (NFFWS), overseen by the OPW, was to provide information support to emergency management decision-makers. Further development of the NFFWS, including Ireland’s network of hydrometric observation systems, is required to support a public flood warning service. Met Éireann is successfully providing information and guidance to decision making stakeholders such as the Local Authorities, the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management and other agencies, who have received training to enable them to interpret the information and use the software system. The service information being provided operationally is tailored for these stakeholders and provides valuable information regarding the likelihood of river and/or coastal flooding. This information protects the public from flood risk as it is utilised by these emergency management stakeholders to manage flood risk and make decisions pertaining to emergency response measures. The NFFWS Service developed under Stage 1 is not at the level of maturity required to provide warnings for specific locations to the public.
