Sineád Morrissey cuts something of a frustrated figure in her shop on Main Street in Midleton, almost two-and-a-half years after flooding devastated her business during Storm Babet.
She has run Bartelli Menswear in the town for 25 years. She has been flooded twice.
At this stage, she's sick of waiting for a solution and feels no progress has been made.
Bartelli Menswear was one of 300 businesses and 600 homes which were flooded in Midleton in October 2023, when 36 hours of persistent rainfall brought flood waters as deep as 1.5m to the town.
Ms Morrissey was one of the business people who tackled Leo Varadkar when he visited Midleton in the aftermath of the flooding.
The €5,000 available to business owners at the time would go "nowhere" near covering her losses, she told the then-taoiseach, during his walkabout to survey the flood damage.
The terms of the emergency flood relief package for businesses were quickly changed as the scale of its inadequacy became apparent, with the maximum payment increased to €100,000.
Ms Morrissey subsequently applied for and was approved for the maximum payout, but it still didn't cover her losses.
"Storm Babet just came right through the entire lower floor of this building. It came up to 1.4m," she recalls now.
"It was like a washing machine when I came in the following day, everything was turned upside down. The power was enormous."
Ms Morrissey doesn't want to focus on the scale of her losses from the flooding in Storm Babbet, although she estimates that damage to her stock alone cost her €146,000.
Instead, she's focused on solutions to the ongoing flooding threat facing Midleton.
The failure to start any real work on the overall flood relief scheme planned for the town is one thing, but the absence of progress on promised interim flood relief measures is maddening for her.
"We in Midleton right now are no better prepared for another flood than we were in October 2023, before Babet struck. That seriously worries me," Ms Morrissey says.
She points out that flood barriers, steel plates designed for quick installation to prevent flooding from entering properties through front and back doors, still haven't been delivered to the majority of the 725 properties in Midleton identified as requiring them, despite being promised for all flooded properties in the aftermath of Storm Babet.
In relation to the failure to deliver the flood barriers, Cork County Council told RTÉ News that securing supply has been "challenging".
"The scale of this Individual Property Protection Scheme vastly exceeds that of any similar scheme delivered in Ireland previously," Cork County Council said in a statement.
"The market response for both supply of barriers and works contractors interested in undertaking the type of work required has been challenging to date.
"The challenges include the availability of the significant number of barriers required in the marketplace, and the availability of contractors to deliver the builders' work. Cork County Council and the OPW are continuing to use all avenues to deliver the scheme as quickly and efficiently as possible, regardless of the significant challenges. This scheme is well advanced," the statement added.
The bottom line is, the flood barriers haven't been delivered.
"We are now coming up to two and a half years later," Ms Morrissey says.
Cork County Council is the lead agency in delivering flood relief measures in Midleton, including an overall scheme to mitigate the ongoing threat which the town faces.
The council says it has carried out a programme of interim measure in the Midleton area since Storm Babet, including replacement of non-return valves, installation of temporary defences at Woodlands estate and adjacent property, removal of river obstructions, vegetation clearance and clearance of deposited material.
A number of additional river level monitoring gauges have also been installed in the area.
Ms Morrissey doesn't feel protected by these measures.
"No! Absolutely not. Absolutely not," she says.
"I know the river is going to break its banks again. I think everyone else knows it too.
"I feel it more so because of Enniscorthy last week...
"There is nothing stopping a flood if it's coming, we just need to improve our reaction to it. That's what this Government, the OPW and Cork County Council should be working on."
Ms Morrissey is critical of progress in removing the threat of flooding in Midleton.
"As somebody who works every day on the main street here, I am not aware of anything that has actually protected me more," she says.
She adds that last week's flooding in the south-east and east of the country triggered a lot of emotions for her.
"To have that happen to them, after it happened to us, and nothing has been really done to change the situation," she says.
"I am actually more worried now. I really am more worried because I see they didn't learn from the episode in Midleton -- they being the powers that be. They didn't learn from it. Nothing has really changed. I am more worried now than I have been before."
Ms Morrissey references Taoiseach Micheál Martin's statement, that he can't wave a magic wand to make a flood relief scheme appear: "You must remember," she says, "we flooded in Midleton in 2015.
It's 11 years later and there is nothing done. That is unacceptable. That surely shouts out that the setup, the system is not working."
Ms Morrissey insists it took her 18 months to fully recover from Storm Babet.
"I wouldn't wish it on anyone," she says.
"It was a tough time. It was a worrying time and there was a lot of hard work. I wouldn't look forward to it happening again."
Derry O'Neill lived in the centre of Midleton, in a three-bedroom house he built himself in Coach Horse Lane, just off Main Street.
When Storm Babet struck in October 2023, flood waters came at him from both sides of the house, as well as coming up through a shorehole across the lane from the front door.
On the laneway, the flood waters rose to waist level. Inside his house, there was 16 inches of flood water.
The flooding caused €25,000 worth of damage.
Mr O'Neill got €15,000 of that back from the Department of Social Protection's humanitarian assistance scheme, to replace furniture and appliances.
But nothing compensated Mr O'Neill for the stress and worry which he and his family suffered from the flooding.
He sold the house last week and has moved to another part of the town, away from the threat of flood waters.
He says he has no faith in commitments to deliver a flood relief scheme for the town.
"They are empty promises, because nothing has been done," O'Neill says.
"Any time we find out something is being done, something comes along."
Asked if he had any faith in promises to deliver a flood relief scheme for the town, he replied: "Not one bit: not until they start doing physical work on the ground will people believe something is going to happen. We don't have any faith is what they say."
For its part, Cork County Council says it's continuing to progress the major flood relief scheme for Midleton with the Office of Public Works.
But there's still no clarity on even when a planning application will be lodged for permission to build the scheme.
The council would only say in its statement that the application will be lodged "in 2026".
