Unsettled conditions are forecast to continue into early next week with rainfall alerts issued for 12 counties on Thursday.
Met Éireann said outbreaks of rain were likely to be widespread on Thursday, but the heaviest rainfall was expected across southern and eastern areas under status orange and yellow alerts.
Given river and ground conditions, “even moderate rainfall could trigger further localised flooding”, the forecaster said, particularly in “fast-responding catchments and downstream of the Wicklow Mountains – including in the southeast, Kildare and Dublin”.
Status orange rain alerts for Wicklow, Waterford and Dublin have been issued.
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The orange warning for Waterford begins at 9am and Thursday and continues until 9am on Friday.
A similar orange rain warning for Dublin and Wicklow will be in place from 12pm on Thursday until 12pm on Friday.
Prior to that a yellow rain warning will be in place for Dublin and Wicklow between 9am and 12pm on Thursday.
Yellow rain warnings are also in place for Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Wexford, and Tipperary from 9am on Thursday until 9am on Friday.
In addition there are yellow rain warnings in place for counties Cavan, Monaghan and Louth from 12pm on Thursday until 12 noon on Friday.
The rain warnings, combined with high river levels and high tides, would lead to localised floods, river flooding and difficult travel conditions, Met Éireann said.
The heavy rain forecast for Thursday follows a brief respite from wet conditions on Wednesday. However, many rivers remain close to or above bank-full after last week’s rain, Met Éireann said.
[ Weather update: Met Éireann issues multiple warnings including orange alert ahead of heavy rain ]
This has left catchments “highly sensitive” to any additional rainfall, it said.
Separately, it said high spring tides over the coming days, combined with strong onshore winds and storm surge, would increase the risk of wave overtopping and coastal flooding in exposed areas.
Keith Leonard, from the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management, said “absolutely every engineering solution and every kind of interim measure” is being taken to deal with the record-breaking levels of water in river catchments around the country.
Speaking on Wednesday, Leonard said: “We’re in a very unusual situation now, where even rainfall below the warning thresholds can have an impact across the rivers and sometimes the impact lags behind the rainfall, so you could have impacts right up until Friday.”
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Meanwhile, more than 100 households have applied for financial assistance following the floods, a meeting of Fine Gael’s parliamentary party was told on Wednesday evening.
Tánaiste Simon Harris said there had been 103 claims under the Emergency Response Payment for flood-hit households and more are expected.
He said 10 applications had been made to date by businesses and community organisations under a separate assistance scheme.
Harris also told the meeting a Cabinet subcommittee would meet soon to examine the early weather-warning system and the governance structure for future adverse weather events.
Outbreaks of rain are expected to gradually become confined to Ulster on Friday as sunny spells and scattered showers follow from the south, Met Éireann said.
Some scattered showers will be “heavy or possibly thundery”.
While there is some uncertainty, further showers or outbreaks of rain are likely on Saturday, though drier spells are expected later in the day.
On Sunday there will be a mix of clouds and sunny spells with well-scattered showers, Met Éireann said, while early next week is “signalled to continue unsettled”.
