'We have people whose homes were destroyed'

A Fine Gael Councillor based in Midleton, who also runs a shop with her husband, said that yesterday was the worst day she had ever experienced professionally.

Susan McCarthy said when the flooding first came through she was next door to the shop, and thought a water tank had exploded, but they then saw floods coming in the side of the doors.

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Ms McCarthy said the damage could be in the tens of thousands of euro.

She said that people are "genuinely very angry" as "the flood relief scheme - we were promised a five year plan in 2015 - nearly eight years on from that and it's not even near construction.

"That makes me angry ... management needs to sit up and do something about this now.

"The OPW need to pull the finger out here, we cannot have any delays, this is people's livelihoods and their lives. We have people whose homes were destroyed, we had people trapped in our shop yesterday".