Tánaiste Simon Harris and Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty have been asked to behave with “a bit of decorum” after a heated row about flooding.
Following testy exchanges between the two, with repeated interruptions and heckling, Leas-Cheann Comhairle John McGuinness remonstrated with both men.
He said such behaviour was happening every Thursday morning and while deputies could make their point robustly, he reminded them that people were watching “and suffering” because of the floods, and were seeking and entitled to information.
During ill-tempered exchanges, the Tánaiste said that, to date, 14 businesses had applied for the newly increased flood financial support scheme worth up to €100,000 to individual firms, while 100 claims from homeowners for emergency assistance had been processed.
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Doherty accused the Government of presiding over a “decade of broken promises” on flood relief schemes.
“This is happening on your watch, but it is not new,” he told the Tánaiste. “You have been at the heart of Government for over a decade now. You’ve been Minister during repeated flooding events.”
He said Harris had been minister of state with responsibility for flood defences in 2015 and 2016 when “communities were devastated” and many of the schemes promised then remained incomplete, “with a significant number still stuck at planning or, even worse, early design stage rather than being built”.
He said the figures were “stark”. Nearly every county has flood relief issues and communities have been lobbying ever since. “There are 94 flood relief schemes described as ongoing, 68 of them haven’t even reached planning stage, 54 of them are not in active consideration at all.
“This is the reality behind your record of broken promises. This is not a failure of information. It is a failure of political follow-through.”
The Donegal TD also accused the Government of blaming everyone but themselves.
The Tánaiste said “relatively minor works” in areas such as Portrane, Clontarf and Listowel had made a “very real and meaningful difference”.
The Government’s focus “will be working intensively with local authorities to identify what more can be done in the here and now – aqua dams, pumps, embankments, minor works, alongside advancing the major flood relief schemes as well”, he said.
He insisted there had been a lot of progress on flood relief, with €1.3 billion in the National Development Plan to deliver major flood-relief schemes.
“The OPW has already completed some 56 flood-relief schemes, protecting some 13,000 properties and avoiding estimated damage of around €2 billion. We’ve seen 900 projects already funded and approved through the OPW, so called minor work schemes” and there are 10 schemes currently under construction.
[ Blaming Met Éireann for floods is wrong. Who rezoned the floodplains?Opens in new window ]
Doherty said the Tánaiste talked about the “new buzz word, ‘the here and now’” but that he was talking about what happened in the past 10 years.
Harris hit back, saying that if there were any floods in Northern Ireland he would not blame the First Minister [Doherty’s party colleague Michelle O’Neill]. “This isn’t about party politics or partisan politics” but about “actually acting”.
When Doherty interrupted, Harris called on him to “leave the bully boy tactics out of the chamber today and just for once take off the party jersey”.
He said it was “extremely important we get the facts out to people watching”.
There would be an “increased focus on allowing local authorities to fast track more works that can be done in the here and now,” he said.
Flood-relief schemes were being classified as critical infrastructure, the Tánaiste said, and there would be “an overhaul of the flood warning schemes and assistance to help people in relation to business assistance” and humanitarian assistance.
