Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Carey for raising this very important matter. As he knows, I am aware of the flooding problem at Ballycar Lough because he has raised it with me on a continuous basis. I understand that road flooding prevents access to a few houses in the area but that the substantive issue has to do with the flooding on the Ennis to Limerick rail line.

I am advised that the cause of this flooding has to do with the geology of the area, where the outfall from Ballycar Lough is a swallow hole which does not have adequate capacity to discharge the increased inflows which occur during prolonged rainfall. As a result, the water levels rise and can inundate the railway line and the adjacent road, blocking access to a small number of houses. The Office of Public Works has been liaising with Iarnród Éireann and the relevant local authorities in regard to this matter and will continue to work constructively with them. Technical advice and assistance has been offered and the OPW will continue to make its knowledge and expertise available.

On the proposal the Deputy has made, I believe it would be a good idea to set up a working group between all of the relevant stakeholders - the OPW, Iarnród Éireann, the local authority and the community. On the OPW side, I will undertake to commit an engineer or an official to attend such a meeting. It might be more useful, however, if the meeting was brought together by the local authority. Nonetheless, we will certainly play our part in working with all of the other agencies to find a solution.

There are essentially two options available to deal with this problem. One is to attempt to undertake works to mitigate the flooding at the lough. This has been investigated and a preliminary cost of approximately €10 million has been estimated for the required works, which is one quarter of the national flood relief budget for this year - I just make that point.

Another option is to raise the affected stretch of road and the railway line. Raising the road could be undertaken by the local authority at very little cost. In respect of the rail line, the OPW has consistently taken the view that as the flooding impacts primarily on the railway line and that the railway line would be the main beneficiary of flood mitigation measures, it is, therefore, a matter for larnród Éireann as the owner of the railway line to resolve the problem by taking the lead on and funding the flood mitigation works or by the raising the railway line.

I am aware of the report prepared for larnród Éireann by RPS Consultants setting out a number of possible measures to address this problem. The OPW wrote to larnród Éireann in April 2012 with detailed comments on this report and indicating areas where it had concerns. The report recommended a scheme of works involving discharging the floodwaters downstream to an embanked area that already floods occasionally, contains some crucial air traffic control infrastructure, is in part the subject of significant environmental designation and only discharges to the sea when the tide is out. The concerns with this recommended scheme should be clear but the OPW expressed particular concern at a proposal to increase the discharge from the lough to a tide-locked area containing internationally critical low-lying transport infrastructure. The proposals in the report would require some further mitigating measures which the report has not taken into account. It was noted by the OPW also that the RPS report did not include a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed flood relief works. Proposed works on this scale could only proceed on the basis of a robust appraisal which indicated a clear economic justification for spending €10 million.

The OPW also pointed out that the estimated cost of raising the railway line was only marginally more than the proposal, preferred by larnród Éireann, that flood relief works be undertaken. When account is taken of the additional cost of the further mitigating measures that would be required but not covered in the RPS report, the economic argument clearly tilts in favour of raising the railway line. The OPW remains willing to work with larnród Éireann, the local authorities and local residents to produce an effective resolution of the problem at Ballycar. However, as I have indicated, the OPW has always been clear in its position that as larnród Éireann is the primary beneficiary from any proposals to resolve the flooding problem at Ballycar, it would have to take the lead on and fund whatever project may proceed, be it flood mitigation works or raising the railway line. It would appear to be the case that the latter option is the most cost-effective solution in any event. As the Deputy has made a very worthwhile contribution and proposal about a working group, I commit that my colleagues in the OPW will come to the table once others do.

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