AQW 33936/22-27

Mr Andrew McMurray
Alliance Party
South Down

Tabled Date: 20/10/2025
Answered On Date: 07/11/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail any consideration her Department has given to providing lightweight sandbag alternatives to residents of properties at risk of flooding, who cannot carry heavy sandbags.

Answer:

As the Lead Government Department for the strategic co-ordination of the emergency response to severe weather, my Department has well established plans to facilitate the response to flooding. This includes stores of sandbags at operational depots which are available for deployment by my staff, along with other resources, to assist when responding to flooding incidents.

Through the work of the Regional Community Resilience Group (RCRG) there are also many publicly accessible sandbag stores located in communities where there is a history of flooding and where a local resilience group has been formed. As part of the ongoing work of the RCRG, communities are encouraged to develop their own community plan so that vulnerable members who may be unable to deploy sandbags are assisted by others from the local community, before the arrival of any responding government agencies.