Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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At the outset, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue for debate. January and February 2014 will be remembered for severe storm damage and flooding right across the country. Thankfully, the storms have gone and the weather has settled down, but in one townland on the outskirts of the village of Newmarket-on-Fergus, at Ballycar, flood waters remain extremely high. These floods are a recurring problem which are having a detrimental effect on residents, on farmland and on the rail line between Limerick and Ennis, which is part of the western rail corridor. Five households are inaccessible, hundreds of acres of farmland remain under water and the rail service has been closed since 2 February and is not expected to re-open until the end of May. The extremely wet winter has dramatically increased the water levels of Ballycar Lough, resulting in meters of water covering the rail line and flooding farmland and the public road.

A solution to this problem needs to be found. In my view, no agency wants to take responsibility for the issue. In the meantime, passengers who turn up to Ennis railway station are forced to take a bus to Limerick and vice versa. Much has been invested in terms of marketing and physical infrastructure to get this rail-line re-opened and to get passengers engaged with it, but all of that hard work is now threatened. Sadly, further money will be required to address the damage caused by flood waters to the train tracks when those waters recede. Equally, families living in Ballycar have to take a cross-country route through neighbouring properties to get in and out of their homes, sometimes two or three times a day. One family has twins under the age of two and it is a very difficult task for them each day. This is a recurring problem that needs to be resolved.

It is important that a long-term solution is found and that local views are listened to. From speaking with local landowners and residents, I know they are more than willing to play an active role in coming up with a solution. It is my understanding that Irish Rail presented the OPW with an in-depth report focused on the flooding issues at Ballycar. This report has put forward a number of options which need to be explored and put into action. A swallow hole on the outskirts of Newmarket-on-Fergus needs to be cleaned and some sort of filter must be incorporated into it to prevent further clogging. Local landowners have put forward the view that an additional drain could be opened to link into the existing water channels, thus removing the flood from Ballycar by moving the excess water to tributaries feeding the River Fergus. I note and welcome Clare County Council's commitment, subject to funding being released, to raise the road at three different locations in Ballycar in an effort to keep the public road open.

What I am asking for today is that an official from the OPW would be appointed from the Mungret office to co-ordinate all agencies which have a interest in this matter, such as Clare County Council, Irish Rail and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, together with local landowners and residents, with a view to setting up a working group to seek a solution to this issue, and for the OPW to be the responsible agency to implement the solution. Rail users using the national rail network, specifically the Ennis to Limerick line, residents of Ballycar, landowners and the ordinary taxpayers want and deserve a solution to this problem. The flooding at Ballycar cannot be resolved without one agency taking a lead role and that agency must be the OPW.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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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.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. As I understand it, the railway line has already been raised. Clare County Council intends to raise the road at three different locations where it floods, which is welcome. I do not believe raising the railway line is the solution. I note that €10 million is a lot of money. larnród Éireann, the OPW and Clare County Council are all State bodies receiving public money and public money has gone into the railway line to get up and running. It is a successful railway line and many people use it to go from Ennis to Limerick. This issue is undermining the national rail network. It has an impact on people going to work and tourists and needs to be resolved. It is having an impact on people living in Ballycar. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State has committed to involving an official from the OPW in a working group because there has been a lot of passing the buck in respect of this issue. I am delighted that the Minister of State has stood up to the plate today and committed himself to involving an official from the OPW in a working group. I will commit to contacting Clare County Council to ask it to convene a meeting between itself, the OPW, larnród Éireann, local landowners and the residents with a view to coming up with some type of solution. It may not cost €10 million. Local people have put forward some solutions that they feel may alleviate the flooding problem. I will commit to doing that and, hopefully, some solution can be found.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's suggestion that all the relevant agencies come together is a good one. It is worth putting on the record that we reckon that the cost of raising the road in the area, which could alleviate this problem, would be somewhere between €20,000 and €50,000. It is obviously a matter for the county council. It is also worth saying that we are clear in our view that larnród Éireann has the necessary legal powers under the legislation to deal with the flooding problem at Ballycar. If a railway order is made, the company's powers are very similar to those of the OPW. The primary beneficiaries here are the railway line and the rail network. They have a responsibility to try to find a solution in financial terms. If bringing the people together to see if some collective solution can be found is something worth pursuing, the Deputy can be assured that not only will the OPW be at the table, it will try to find a solution.