Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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As Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said the Minister of State is really getting the tour of it. Funnily enough I know Lismore, Tallow, Ballynaraha out into Curraglass and on into Conna. My wife is actually a Tallow woman. The Minister of State is really getting the in-depth tour of it and I thank him for being here this evening.

I am raising the 18 October flooding in Midleton and the surrounding areas. Only last weekend a video was streamed on social media - I think it was Facebook - of a family I know. They were really terrified because the river was rising again. The family were just after finishing painting the house after the recent flooding in October. I will not use the language that they used in fear that it was going to be flooded again. I will give credit as I always do. I raised this directly with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, on 19 December because there was debris, trees and other stuff in there. They were down there and they did take it out. There is a flood plain across the road from that place at Moore's Bridge. I believe the height for the overflow of that could be reduced allowing the flood plain to do its job alleviating all that flooding.

We have moved on from 18 October but given the fear last week, on Sunday, 21 January a local newspaper headline read, "Petition urges start to flood relief measures in east Cork". There are over 9,500 signatures on this petition already. The petition is not designed to batter anybody. The newspaper reported:

According to the petition, which has been initiated by the Midleton and East Cork Flood Protection Group, the community in Midleton and surrounding villages [this is where the Minister of State gets the tour] of Dungourney, Castlemartyr, Carrigtwohill, Killeagh, Mogeely, Ladysbridge, and Whitegate in East Cork could not wait any longer for action to put in place interim flood relief measures.

Chairperson of the group, Mona Stromsoe, said... “If this flood happened at night it is almost certain there would have been loss of life. There are several stories of people being rescued from homes and rushing water on the street,” she said. “This constitutes a national emergency, underscoring the imperative for immediate interim measures to safeguard lives in our community.”

That threat to life during the 18 October flood was real and there have been some near fatalities. When the 2015 floods hit, we were told it was a once-in-100-years event. Just eight years later we were hit by a flood which was worse than that. The flood that hit us in October came so fast that it was upon us in minutes with flood water rising in some cases up to 6 feet. I am well aware of the CFRAM study. I am well aware that it is unprecedented. I want to put on the record that it is possible to have five once-in-100-years events in one day. I want to put that on the record because people think it will happen only once in 100 years.

Given the fear of people of east Cork and surrounding areas, they are looking for guarantees and for guidance. I met the chief executive of the municipal district over Christmas. There is not a plan in place if we have such flooding again. I asked who would co-ordinate it. It was left up to volunteers the last time. The emergency services and the Civil Defence were amazing. However, the majority of it was down to volunteers who co-ordinated and everything. Our fear is that we may get another once-in-100-years event between now and March; we just do not know. People want to get some clarity from the Government or a commitment to putting in interim measures in the area. Yes, there will be problems to alleviate it, but we need some protection so that at least people will not have two hours to get out of the house. We need something that is more positive and safer. I ask the Minister of State to give me some clarity on that.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. He is absolutely right about the fear that people feel when they see horrific events like very serious flooding coming towards their property. I know that as I come from a constituency which has suffered extreme levels of flooding in the past.

The catchment flood risk assessment and management programme provided the Government with the evidence to launch a national and proactive programme of 120 additional and new flood relief schemes in 2018. While Midleton was part of this CFRAM programme, major flooding in December 2015 and again in January 2016 were the catalysts to commence work for the design of a flood relief scheme for Midleton ahead of the conclusion of the CFRAM programme.

Cork County Council is leading the design of the scheme and in 2017 appointed engineering and environmental consultants. Designing any flood relief scheme is complex and requires data on the flood sources and their associated risks. Today some 100 schemes are at design and construction stages. Midleton has proven to be one of the most complex schemes. It has flood risks from four sources, fluvial, tidal, groundwater and pluvial. In 2017, data did not exist on all these sources of flooding and monitoring was required over a number of years to allow the flooding mechanism to be understood.

Three public participation days have been held in 2017, 2020 and 2022.

As well as engaging with the local community on the scheme’s progress, these served to gather useful information and assess their views on the preferred option for the Midleton flood relief scheme. The outcome also increased the scope of the analysis and assessments required. The preferred scheme has now been identified with a total project budget of €50 million, three times the estimated budget in 2017. This highlights the scale of the project’s increase in scope. It also highlights that today we have designed a scheme that is robust, supported by strong evidence, has the support of the community and is future-proofed and adaptable to climate change scenarios. The preferred option protects 580 properties against a one-in-100-year flood fluvial event, can give back flood insurance to the town and stands up to scrutiny and-or challenge.

Having invested eight years in arriving at the preferred scheme, an assessment following Storm Babet is under way, so we know we have a scheme that can meet the standard of protection required by the insurance industry. The next major step is to seek planning consent, and work has already begun on the environmental surveys to allow us to start the planning consent process early in 2024.

After Storm Babet, the OPW met with the chief executive and senior officials from Cork County Council and the scheme’s consultants to discuss how the Midleton scheme can be delivered as quickly as possible. While the planning stage for this project is due to commence shortly, Cork County Council is assessing Storm Babet to identify the possibility of advancing any viable interim and targeted works for the town. Identification and ongoing roll-out of interim measures has also been progressed, including removal of trees in the channel at Moore’s Bridge, installation of a water level gauge at Tír Cluain Bridge, with additional gauges to be installed at Lidl Bridge and a pedestrian bridge in the People’s Park in January 2024. The OPW and local authorities do not have the powers to expedite these schemes arising from the damage caused by flooding events, and the delivery of all schemes must meet all of the regulatory and planning requirements. Consideration is being given to the preferred planning route that can deliver these schemes as quickly as possible.

It is not possible to progress all 150 flood relief schemes identified by the flood risk management plans simultaneously due to the constraint of the availability of the professional and specialised engineering skills required to design and construct flood relief schemes. While the prioritised approach to delivering schemes means work is complete or under way to protect some 80% of all at-risk properties nationally, the flood relief project at Castlemartyr is not in the first tranche of projects being progressed nationally. However, the funding for this scheme is available.

Under the OPW flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme, applications by local authorities for localised flood mitigation measures are considered for projects that are estimated to cost not more than €750,000 in each instance. Funding of up to 90% of the cost is available for approved projects. Applications are assessed by the OPW having regard to the specific economic, social and environmental criteria of the scheme, including a cost-benefit ratio and having regard to the availability of funding for the flood risk management. All details of this scheme are available on the OPW website.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response and, as I said, I know about the sensors being installed on the pedestrian bridge, the Lidl Bridge, the People's Park, and so forth, and that the drone survey has been completed. I also know a number of CFRAM studies have been done and there has been some engagement on the removal of that bridge. The reason I want to put this on the record, and I am a realist, is that everybody's story is a tragedy, no matter where it is in the country, so it is to highlight the level of fear people are feeling. Even in the case of my own office, which was not a priority compared with businesses and homes, I will be lucky to have that opened in about two weeks, which shows the damage that was done to places, and I am very lucky.

I am 54, plus a little bit to that, perhaps, and I have never seen flooding like this in my town, but I have seen community spirit rise above it. What they really need is open engagement. The biggest problem we have with anything is there is no two-way flow of information. I know the council, the Government, the OPW, the office of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, and the local council have been actively working on this. I want to put that on record and recognise it. I am very lucky in that I engage with as many people as I want and I speak very frankly when I am talking to people. I just need to put on the record that there will be a petition coming, and it will probably come to us on the petitions committee, in any event.

I welcome the fact there is money there, the process has moved forward and the Government, the councils and all other stakeholders have identified where the problems or possible problems are. It is not going to happen overnight, but if remedial work can be done, the most important aspect of this being some kind of a state-of-the-art solution - we know the early warning system has been piloted since about 2016 - where we can go back to our constituents and say, God forbid should it ever happen again, they will have five, six, or seven hours to prepare for something, that would a start. We know it will take a long time to solve this problem but I will just keep an eye on it. I thank the Minister of State for the response and it is encouraging it is moving forward.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I again thank Deputy Buckley for raising this very important matter on behalf of his community. I outline that the steering group is due to meet again in the next week or so and local elected representatives will be part of that. I assure the Deputy that the funding is in place for the relief scheme. It will be taken from the €1.3 billion that is available for flood risk management measures right throughout the country. It is important that funding is in place, that a very significant amount of data and evidence has been gathered already on the path flows and the pressures of flooding in the area, and if any alternative work can be done or carried out in the meantime to give additional protection, the OPW will certainly take account of that. It is important to keep in contact with all local representatives in the process.