From left: Cabinet members Alex White, Simon Coveney, Enda Kenny, Joan Burton, Alan Kelly and Simon Harris this lunchtime
Relax.
Help is on its way (should this kind of thing happen again).
The set up of a Flood Management Co-Ordination and Implementation Group is among the matters discussed at a crisis summit at Government Buildings this afternoon
The new group would co-ordinate the local flood management plans for 66 different towns and settlements along the Shannon which are vulnerable to flooding.
Junior minister Simon Harris says other measures being discussed today include funding for a long-term weather forecasting system.
Glug.
#hometofloat
Earlier: I Love Rain
They can start by updating this horror of a ‘National Flood Mapping’ website;
http://www.floods.ie/
1999 called….etc.
So that’s how you get Acrobat Reader now.
It even won a few awards (somehow) http://www.floods.ie/Awards.htm
Ha! That’s hilarious. I guess they all put their collective (dry) feet up in 2007 and that was that.
A long-term weather forecasting system?
Yes, because Met Eireann had been deliberately holding off on developing this marvel until they got a nod from Government.
Flood protection would surely always be better option than knowing there is bad weather a com’n and not having better flood protection than is currently in place.Simon is a wet nosed twit.
Flood forecasting does not stop floods
buy 10,000 pairs of wellies and shovels.
give them to lads in prison and tell them to get clearing ditches and culverts to earn time off sentences. and maybe a fetac cert if they put a shift in.
only ODCs need apply..
A common misconception that this will alleviate flooding problems. The trick is to work upstream and increase the absorbent capacity of the landscape. This is done by planting more vegetation which improve soil structure and reducing livestock which strip the land of coverage and compact the soil. Dredging just speeds the flow of water towards towns and villages. Allowing rivers to meander and restoring wetlands and bogs are also excellent measures and they cost a fraction of building flood defences.
Jaysus. I should have been at that meeting!
what this guy said!!
Absolutely right.
For decades the Minsteries of Agriculture throughout Europe have been encouraging upland farmers to rip out hedges and trees or lose some of their grants because the only thing the wee Twats in offices want to see is Grassland.
Yet these very same ministeries are sending people, and our money, to the Himalayas etc. to encourage tree planting to stop flooding caused by deforestation.
Pigeon hole politics.
Absolutely right.
For decades the Minsteries of Agriculture throughout Europe have been encouraging upland farmers to rip out hedges and trees or lose some of their grants because the only thing the wee numpties, in far away offices, want to see is Grassland.
Yet these very same ministeries are sending people, and our money, to the Himalayas etc. to encourage tree planting to stop flooding caused by deforestation.
Pigeon hole politics.
Blind, bloody bureaucratic bocage-busters.
Absolutely. And NOW is the time to strike, with the Irish Farmers Association in turmoil there can be no resistance!
great another tribunal for the irish political class to pay off their golden circle mates in kings inn
a ‘golden shower’ indeed.
Enda obviously means business, he has the jacket off. I’d say he’ll be rolling up the
sleeveenssleeves any time now.These floods affect 260 households (RTE figures), which is slightly less than 0.02% of the entire number of households in Ireland. Awful for those affected, but why are we expected to lose our collective poo about it as a nation when it doesn’t directly affect 99% of us. If we were to carry on like this for every awful thing that effects a tiny minority, we’d never get anything done.
Wealth doesn’t effect 99% of us either, but it’s the minority that get looked after most of the time as far as money is concerned. Why should this be any different.
What are you saying exactly. F***’em until there’s enough of them to warrant doing something about it?
Plus farms, farm animals, transport of other people, emergency services.
There are many more homes where pumps are going all day trying to stop them flooding.
They are exhausted.
Given that so few are affected, there should be a lot more help available to them.
The floods affect more than just households. Think of the farmland, livestock,public spaces, amenities, infrastructure and livelihoods.
How to fill a sandbag, Irish style.
You will need:
A shovel
Sand
Sandbag
Traffic cone
ladder
2 stepladders
1. Cut the top off the traffic cone
2. Place the ladder in a horizontal position suspended about 1 meter from the ground held in position by the 2 stepladders
3. Place sandbag under traffic cone
4. Shovel sand into traffic cone
The mystery of gravity will force the sand through the traffic cone into the sandbag.
Seriously, this was shown on RTE news last week. It’s what pisses me off most about Fine Gael, always the grand gesture followed by no action.
Investment in machines that can quickly fill sandbags with minimal labour would help a lot in food conditions.
Maybe some walkways that could be assembled quickly.
But no, we’re getting a new multimillion weather forecasting system
And the icing on the cake, the man in charge Simon Harris is a journalist but Kenny saw fit to appoint him as Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Public Procurement and International Banking.
If Ireland is the titanic Harris is the iceberg
A BA in journalism in DIT . Enough said
A cynic might think that there was an election coming…..
Kenny looks like he regrets having so quickly used up all of his jolly jovial quota for this month. Burton looks like she regrets having not yet changed her wet pants.
Ha!
And not one Dutch person on the panel. Tut, tut.
I liked the Simon Harrisbit at the end…. has a bang of the last kid in the class giving Enda an apple on the way out.
And he’ll get a boot in the arse in the yard too!
A long-term weather forecasting system?
Funding?
-Can we not just use the internet?
Yr.no
That room is just crying out for an alien probing.
Saint Paul feels there’s nothing wrong with that room that a good felching wouldn’t fix
This might interest you, Saint Paul.
I stumbled across a thing called ‘rimming’ earlier today.
I think it would be right up your alley.
Of course you might have to remove your head from your a$$ first.
Is this a problem?
I can help.
I won’t, but I can.
I like how the tables placed side by side resemble a sturdy bridge, which is precisely what’s needed. Enda knows what’s what.
A lot of time and money would saved if the legislation that gave power to the
ESB over the last 90 years to dam, impound main rivers, and to raise their levels
is repealed, if it continues, bill the ESB for the damage, are they not earning an
income from the Shannon, Lee, Erne and Liffey, the people who gave these powers
were the successive administrations since 1925….Hydro power generation to
national load demand is negibale in 2016, we are not living 1956 when it was
critical, we have moved on.
And two national NGO’s namely an Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment
need investigation on their activities and lobbying in the last number of years and
lets not overlook the watch of one M D Higgins when a Minister in charge of
Duchas, these people are more concerned about the frogs than the people.
Who decided to give a pile of money to the Met Office, their weather predictions
leave a lot to be desired, as to predicting floods…..wonder will they be able to
predict the result of the Election.