Massive flooding has hit areas all around Ireland as a Spring storm wreaks havoc from coast to coast. Snowstorms lashed Northern Ireland leading to 35,000 power outages.

Irish leader Enda Kenny was forced to comment on the floods following criticism even as he was concluding a business trip to America.

“There has been extensive and heavy rainfall, and obviously this is a matter that has to be managed properly.

“Every local authority has its plan for exceptional weather events. I hope not too many people have been discommoded or have had to be moved out, and it is a case of the local authority managing this effectively and as quickly as they can,” he said.

Cork was badly hit, said Chamber of Commerce CEO Conor Healy.

Speaking to the Irish Times, he said: “Businesses in Cork have been badly impacted by flooding and it's happening now on a fairly regular basis. Blackpool has been hit for the second time in nine months and the system has been unable to take the water flow.

“The result is that businesses are four feet underwater within a very short period of time. People and businesses are very much losing patience in terms of solutions being provided to help mitigate what's been happening over the past few years.

“This is where the authorities need to step in and recognise that there is a serious problem. There doesn't seem to be any urgency, particularly within the OPW to address this situation.

“Businesses are paying substantial commercial rates every year to ensure that services are delivered by the local authority. They are very frustrated and wondering why is this continuing to happen and why are they paying substantial rates for services they are not getting."

The M11 motorway in South Dublin was closed leading to "tremendous chaos" according to the AA spokesman  Conor Faughnan. "It caused tremendous chaos in the morning commute and there were knock-on effects of enormous traffic delays right around the south side of Dublin.

"At one stage today we had reports of three hour commutes to get from Ballybrack to Bray, which is pretty horrendous.”