Taoiseach Micheál Martin will travel to the south east to meet with people affected by the Storm Chandra floods in the coming days.
Mr Martin told RTÉ News, "I will be doing that", saying "we will be out there meeting people on the ground to hear what they have to say".
The Taoiseach said the Government's "main focus right now" is to "respond adequately to the various areas that have been impacted here, both in terms of humanitarian and business support schemes".
He said this will include "what interim measures we can take and what additional resources may be required by local authorities".
Earlier, the Taoiseach convened a meeting of the National Emergency Coordination Group to discuss the flooding issue.
The Taoiseach said local areas need to be on alert for further flooding in the days to come, saying he was told of the need "to be on high vigilance over the next 10 days, because there will be more rain next week".
He said, "waters are at a very elevated level, quite a number of rivers are full, so we are concerned and worried about the days ahead".
Mr Martin separately said that he has been told that "the south east and east coast is the main area (of concern) right now, but across the country as you know water levels are quite high because of persistent rain over a long period of time".
He said that "if anybody has any concerns contact your local authority, people will be out there on the ground, they will be on the ground in the affected areas, and it's important people engage with the local authorities or with local volunteer organisations so that people are alerted earlier and that we're there to respond to people's needs".
Mr Martin confirmed that the scheme open to businesses as well as community and sporting organisations, who can prove they have been impacted by Storm Chandra and do not have flood insurance, is to be increased from a maximum of €20,000 to €100,000.
The Taoiseach also asked those administering the scheme to help as many people and businesses as possible.
Mr Martin also addressed criticism of existing Met Éireann weather warning levels, including earlier this week from Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for Housing James Browne.
In response, the Taoiseach said: "I think the warnings themselves are important, and they're established not just here but relatively globally as well.
"But there will be local variations in terms of elevated water, that would have been communicated to local authorities, and that's something we will evaluate as well in terms of local precision in terms of forecasting and particularly in terms of floods arising from severe weather.
"You could have a national Yellow (warning) but you may have particular areas within that then that could have more severe consequences given local circumstances, and that's something we certainly have to evaluate."
Asked about discussions over whether environmental wildlife issues or people should take priority in terms of flood defences, he said: "It's very difficult for people to understand (why there would be a dispute), and in my view, the prioritisation of people's lives in the first instance, livelihoods, households, and business premises must take priority.
"I've seen where we've put in flood schemes in Clonmel or Bandon for instance, why they have worked. So they do work.
"We do need to do that in terms of natural responses as well and given the severity and frequency of what's happening the overall adaptation programme will have to adjust to meet that."
Government needs to look again at flood response - Brophy
Meanwhile, Minister of State and Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy said the Government needs to "look again, completely" at flood relief and responses.
Speaking on RTÉ's Saturday with Cormac Ó hEadhra, he said people's lives have been "upended and destroyed" in the last few days, adding that many residents in Rathfarnham in south Dublin had not experienced flooding of that level before.
"Even those residents who were really angry with the local authority and the situation were saying, as I was, that that particular area, that particular type of flood coming down from the top and down to the bottom in Woodside, is not something anyone had experienced before," he said.
"We had experienced Dodder flooding quite regularly and there has been a flood relief programme started for that. We are now experiencing in a number of areas ... where the sheer volume of water falling over a period of time is unprecedented.
"And when you get super surges of rain coming through on top of that, that water run off is actually hitting and impacting areas where no one has a memory of flooding."
The Dublin South-West TD said he would not defend planning permissions from years ago that allowed properties be built on flood planes, adding that it "shouldn't happen".
Minister Brophy said that when applications are made now, local authorities require a full investigation into the potential for flooding.
"We shouldn't be building in areas where we know that there's a potential for people to get flooding. We need to be building, rapidly, but we need to be building sensibly as well," he said, adding that "proper flood relief schemes" need to be built at a faster pace.
'Real anger' over lack of flood relief schemes
Sinn Féin TD for Waterford David Cullinane said many of the towns and villages currently affected have been "flooded multiple times over the last 20 years".
Speaking on RTÉ's Saturday with Cormac Ó hEadhra, Mr Cullinane said there is a "real anger" that many of the flood relief schemes have not materialised.
"In some areas it's lack of funding, in other areas it's held up in the planning process ... we're talking about doing something that should have been done 10, 15, 20 years ago," he said.
"Even if we do everything humanly possible over the next 12 months, it's still possible that we'll have floods again next year in these places, so unfortunately we're starting from a very weak point."
Labour Senator Laura Harmon said it is a question of "when, not if" these floods will happen again.
She said scientists have warned for years that "climate chaos is real" and there will be an increase in adverse weather.
"We can't have a situation where every time there is an adverse weather event we are hearing this big sense of urgency in the days and the weeks afterwards and then very little being done in between.
"Ultimately, what the public want is they want reassurance from the Government in a calm way that this is being dealt with and that there will be protections in place," she said.
"My concern is for families who are living in areas that are prone for flooding that can't get insurance for their homes and businesses. The insurance companies certainly need to play a role here but also the State does need to step in with greater supports."
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Govt should 'prioritise' public health and safety over environmental concerns
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said she "unashamedly believes" that Government should priotirise public health and safety over environmental concerns when developing flood protection infrastructure.
Storm Chandra left hundreds of homes underwater, most notably in Enniscorthy in Co Wexford, after the River Slaney burst its banks during heavy rain.
The devastation left by the storm has led to renewed calls from locals for the immediate introduction of a flood prevention scheme, which was historically blocked due to the presence of the protected freshwater pearl mussel in the Slaney.
Speaking today, Minister Carroll MacNeill said there has been a slowness in infrastructure development for too many individual reasons
"There is a broader public need, there is a broader collective imperative to develop the things that we need whether it's in energy, whether it's in flood protection, whether it's health infrastructure and to develop that in the interests of the broad public common good to make sure that our people are served and protected in the way that they deserve to be."
She added; "we have had some changes in relation with Jack Chambers recently in relation to speed, let's see how that works," she said.
Minister Carroll McNeill added that steps will need to be made to better communicate with the public in regard to warnings of extreme weather events.
"We recognise that weather is getting much more difficult, that we're going to have to find ways to communicate and recognise the challenges."
"It's a very sorry situation to have this level of climate change where we're seeing these impacts but we're going to have to develop a way in which we communicate more effectively with people," she said.
