Flood Relief Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Kevin Boxer Moran (IND), Longford-Westmeath

I cannot be more clear than to say it is driven by the local authorities. They work with my Department. There are significant delays in the modelling but I am giving the Deputy a way to alleviate that pressure through the minor works programme while we wait for the overall scheme. The local authorities have it within their remit to do that. While I fully appreciate the pressure the Deputy is under from the local community, delivering protection to the local community is very important. Local authorities are the people who drive on these schemes. We support them with the advice and the finance but we also help them to deliver schemes. The local authorities know only too well about the minor works scheme and I believe they can play a pivotal role in delivering an interim solution to the problem the Deputy is raising. I will go further and will talk to the local authorities for the Deputy.
As I said, everywhere is gone over the last 15 days, I have to intervene to try to drive on schemes, when the local authorities have the resources - sometimes we are funding them - and the means to get on with the scheme. People will say it is the OPW but it is not and we have to wake up to that. We all have to work together. I am sick of saying that in this House. We should not play politics with flooding. Sometimes we do have to say the scheme is there and the money is there, so get a scheme in place in the interim to deliver part of the long-term solution. As the Deputy has asked me, I will make phone calls to see how I can drive on the scheme further.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12