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Dail Éireann · 2024-02-08

Part of Other Questions

Flood Relief Schemes

FF Pádraig O'Sullivan · Cork North-Central

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Q102 FF Pádraig O'Sullivan to the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform

102. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to list all the flood relief schemes nationally, county by county, and indicate the stage of development each is at; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5518/24]

Summary of this debate

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I ask the Minister of State to list all the flood relief schemes county by county and outline the stage of development each is at. The OPW will reach a series of important milestones in climate adaptation in 2024, such as: continuing the construction of three major schemes at Glashaboy in the Deputy’s constituency, Morell River and Whitechurch; commencing construction on up to five other schemes at King’s Island, Morrison’s Island in Cork, Crossmolina, about which there has been a bit of conversation, the Poddle River and the River Wad; and progressing up to three further schemes towards substantial completion at Athlone, Springfield and Templemore.

I will outline a county-by-county breakdown of the major flood relief schemes that are currently being progressed.

Built by scoring every sentence in the debate on how distinctive its language is, then quoting the highest-scoring ones back word for word and in the order spoken. Nothing is paraphrased or invented — if a sentence appears here, it was said in the chamber. Drawn from 1,125 words across 8 contributions by 4 speakers.

Most used terms in this debate

How often each word appears across the whole debate, ranked by how distinctive it is to this debate rather than common to all parliamentary language.

schemes 22
flood 9
stage 13
relief 7
glashaboy 3
county-by-county 3
morrison’s 2
river 4
poddle 2
major 7
afterwards 4
springfield 2

The full debate

All 8 contributions, start to finish, in the order they were made. The one you came here for is highlighted.

FF Pádraig O'Sullivan

I ask the Minister of State to list all the flood relief schemes county by county and outline the stage of development each is at. He might give me the national figures and the stages they are at, and I can get the county-by-county list afterwards in the written response.

FG Patrick O'Donovan

I will not read into the record the start of the response because I have done so three times already today. I will skip that and I ask that it be put on the record.

The OPW will reach a series of important milestones in climate adaptation in 2024, such as: continuing the construction of three major schemes at Glashaboy in the Deputy’s constituency, Morell River and Whitechurch; commencing construction on up to five other schemes at King’s Island, Morrison’s Island in Cork, Crossmolina, about which there has been a bit of conversation, the Poddle River and the River Wad; and progressing up to three further schemes towards substantial completion at Athlone, Springfield and Templemore. These schemes will provide protection to over 600 properties.

Outside of these major schemes, as the Deputy knows, local authorities can apply to the Office of Public Works for minor flood mitigation works and the coastal protection scheme. This provides up to 90% of the funding required and, so far, has protected 7,900 properties.

I will outline a county-by-county breakdown of the major flood relief schemes that are currently being progressed. In Cavan, there is a scheme at Cavan town, which is at stage 1. In Clare, there is Kilkee, which is at stage 1; Shannon; and Springfield, which is almost at completion. In Cork, there is Ballinhassig, which is at stage 1; Ballymakeery-Ballyvourney, which is at stage 1; Bantry; the Bride River-Blackpool, about which there has been some conversation in the House; Carrigaline; Glashaboy, which is under construction; the lower Lee, which is an enormous scheme that the Deputy will know; Macroom; Midleton; and Morrison’s Island, which has gone out to tender. In Donegal, there is Ballybofey-Stranorlar; Buncrana; Burnfoot; Castlefinn; Donegal Town; Letterkenny; Lifford; Ramelton; and Raphoe. In Dublin, there is the Dodder; Dublin city; Loughlinstown; Malahide; the Poddle River; Portmarnock; Sandymount, which is at the scoping stage; Skerries; and Whitechurch, which is at stage 4.

I will come back to the other counties in my next contribution.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

A county-by-county breakdown of the major flood relief schemes and small flood relief projects that are currently being progressed is provided in the tables, including the current status or stage of each scheme.  The 12 flood relief schemes that have reached substantial completion since 2018 are also listed.

Table 1.  Major Flood Relief Schemes by County with Scheme Stage.

Table 2. Small Projects by County with Scheme Stage.

Table 3. Substantially Complete Schemes since 2018 by County.

FF Pádraig O'Sullivan this contribution

As I said, I am asking for the overall figure nationally and whether a project is at stage 1, stage 2 or whatever. This relates to the broader point of trying to clarify how many are at stage 1 and identifying any delays. I have spoken previously about schemes that have been beset by problems and I want to get an overall picture of how many are stuck, for want of a better adjective. The Minister of State might then outline what difficulties the various schemes are experiencing.

FG Patrick O'Donovan

With regard to those that are currently active, there are 67 major flood schemes and 29 small schemes. These are being led by the local authorities in most cases. There are currently six at construction and these will provide protection for up to 870 properties. We have also initiated a pilot scheme between the Office of Public Works, Donegal County Council and Kilkenny County Council. There was a suggestion that as some of the schemes in tranche 2 are so slow coming out of it, there is a question as to whether they will ever come out of it. We have provided additional resources where that has been deemed necessary, and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will be aware of this in the context of Galway. If a local authority submits a business case to us for additional personnel, whether in regard to hydrology, civil engineering or otherwise, the local authority in most cases has had the application viewed very positively by the Office of Public Works.

I have a fairly substantial table in my response which deals with stages 1 to 4 and others that have not even got off the starting blocks. I will forward that information to the Deputy afterwards.

FF Pádraig O'Sullivan

I thank the Minister of State. As I said, I want to gauge where we are at with the various schemes. Judging from the initial figures that the Minister of State read out, and I do not want to misquote him, there are 67 major schemes and 29 smaller schemes, and just six of them are at construction. If that is the headline figure, there are obviously difficulties with various schemes across the country that are stuck in the pipeline. I welcome the response and look forward to getting the detail afterwards. I might discuss various issues with the Minister of State afterwards.

FG Patrick O'Donovan

The opportunity for people to raise these issues on the floor of the Dáil is very important to me and the Office of Public Works. In recent years, we have been at pains to point out that these are not just flood relief schemes, as they were typically called, and they are an adaptation to El Niño and the climate issues that are currently being faced by the world and not only by Glashaboy, Coirib go Cósta and everywhere else. These are schemes designed to withstand 100-year events and have the international standard that goes with that. They are complicated by nature and we have had a lot of over-and-back with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, with regard to the planning applications around some of them. However, those that have been built and delivered have been very successful, and every Deputy is aware of one that has been delivered in their own constituency. The alleviation of the mental trauma for a community when we finally hand over to the local authority for completion is what is worth it at the end of the day. I thank the Deputy and other Deputies for using the opportunity to raise this because it gives me political capital with the Minister to make sure that more can be done.

FG Paschal Donohoe

The Minister of State is not lacking political capital, I can tell him.

CC Catherine Connolly

As we have a short time left, we will go back to Question No. 95 from Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú. He will not get all of his time but he will get some of it.