Mr. Alan Dunney:

I thank the county manager and will do my best to get through this presentation in a timely fashion. I will consider the subject under nine headings as follows: the background; our approach to delivering schemes; the various schemes delivered under the capital programme with the OPW; the schemes delivered under the non-coastal minor works programme with the OPW; the level of expenditure; our future programme; our engagement with the OPW in respect of the CFRAM studies; the planning context; and to tie it up in conclusion, how the county council deals with the issue of property insurance.

By way of background, there have been six fairly major flood events in County Kildare since 1993. They took place in June 1993 and November 2000 and on 9 August 2008, 16 August 2008, 27 November 2009 - which was a very big one - and 1 January 2010. After the flood events of 1993 and 2000, Kildare County Council commissioned a number of reports for areas that generally have been at risk of flooding in the county. A lot of work was done on this before 2008, particularly along the Morrell River, as well as some bits and pieces in Leixlip. Thereafter, in August 2008, the county council set up a dedicated flood alleviation section, which I head.

Since 2008, our approach has been to develop a good working relationship with the OPW and the other agencies that have an impact on the county, such as Waterways Ireland, Irish Rail, Naas Town Council and our own area engineering offices. As members can imagine, two canals run through County Kildare, as do two rail lines and three motorways. Consequently, we must deal frequently with the National Roads Authority in addition to Waterways Ireland and Irish Rail. We undertake much liaison with local community groups, residential groups and so on, as well of course with our area committees and local authorities that is, Kildare County Council, Naas Town Council and Athy Town Council.

Under our work with the OPW, we undertake two types of scheme, namely, under the capital programme and the minor works programme. The capital programme is for works in excess of €500,000 and, to date, we have undertaken two fairly big schemes. The first is the Johnstown flood alleviation scheme and the second is the Leixlip flood alleviation scheme. Johnstown has a population of approximately 1,000 people. Funding from the OPW was approximately €2.7 million and flood protection measures have been built on three rivers, namely, the Morrell, Anagall and Hartwell rivers. The job has been successfully completed. It is more or less finished, with just bits and pieces of reinstatement measures left outstanding. The Leixlip flood alleviation scheme was a very big scheme for us, for which €3.5 million came from the OPW. The town has a population of nearly 15,000 people and the scheme comprises flood protection in an urban area on the Rye Water and Silleachan rivers. It has been completed successfully and, touch wood, we have not seen any flooding in Leixlip since.

I will turn to a couple of case studies. The Johnstown flood alleviation scheme involved the construction of flood walls, flood embankments, the upgrade of bridges and the construction of a bypass channel on the Anagall River, which has brought flood flow around the south of Johnstown village, rather than across through the village, which is what used to happen. Kildare County Council led the way in respect of planning and land acquisition, while the OPW led the way with funding and actually built the scheme with its direct labour crews. The scheme has been substantially completed. I will show members a couple of pre-construction photographs of flooding in the village, as well as an example of a widened bridge located in the centre of Johnstown village.

Our biggest scheme to date has been in Leixlip, in the north of the county. It involved the construction of flood walls, flood embankments, upgraded bridges, the upgrade of channels and of an existing outfall through Marshfield House, which is a protected structure in Leixlip just on the banks of the River Liffey. The OPW constructed highly complicated engineering works using direct labour. Again, Kildare County Council undertook the Part 8 planning and the land acquisition, while the OPW funded the scheme. The OPW constructed the scheme with its direct labour crew and the scheme has been substantially complete. The slide now on display is an example of the work. The photograph being shown to members on the right is an apartment block that has been built on Mill Lane, Leixlip, with a flood embankment and a flood wall protecting the apartment block. The photograph on display on the left is an upgrade of the Silleachan stream or river channel and Marshfield House is visible in the distance.

The second scheme, which the OPW developed approximately three years ago, is the non-coastal minor works flood alleviation scheme, which funds works up to and including €500,000 and the county council has undertaken quite a few schemes under its auspices. These include, for example, the Sallins flood alleviation scheme, which is associated with the Waterways estate in Sallins, the Butterstream flood alleviation scheme in Clane, Newtown near Kilcock, the Toni River in Celbridge, which was a complicated job in an urban area, the Ardclough flood alleviation scheme and the Confey flood alleviation scheme, which also was in an urban setting in Leixlip.

If one takes the Sallins flood alleviation scheme as a case study, there was a single flood event in the Waterways estate on 27 November 2009, in which approximately 40 houses were flooded. The flood protection measures constructed comprise the upgrading of an existing canal feeder to the north of the housing estate, as well as the construction of two 1,200 millimetre diameter culverts beneath the Cork to Dublin railway line at Sallins.

Construction of the scour protection with the Grand Canal was part funded by the OPW, Waterways Ireland, Kildare County Council and Irish Rail. That scheme was a good example of the four agencies coming together to help with engineering so the scheme was delivered in a timely fashion. Kildare County Council did the planning, procurement and land acquisition while we procured a contractor to construct the works on our behalf. That has been successfully completed and has passed the test posed by the flooding in October last year.

We can see from an aerial photograph of the estate taken on the morning of Monday, 28 November 2009 which houses were flooded. Then we have a photograph of the upgraded works to the rear of the estate. The top photograph on the left shows the houses we are protecting. The next photograph shows the scar protection for the Grand Canal, which is the outfall of the canal feeder that runs to the north of the estate.

Expenditure to date is about €10 million, three quarters of which was contributed by the OPW, with ourselves and other agencies, including Naas Town Council, Irish Rail and Waterways Ireland making up the difference. The funding level from other agencies seems low but there was a lot of assistance through supervision on the railway. Waterways Ireland helped by opening the canals. The value of work of this nature has not been quantified but there is a cost-benefit to the county of between €15 million and €20 million for the expenditure of €10 million.

The main scheme we are trying to promote at the moment is the Morell river flood alleviation scheme. That flows from Johnstown village through the townlands of Turnings and Killeenmore into the River Liffey in Straffan. The scheme has a capital value of approximately €4 million. A preliminary cost-benefit analysis has been carried out and approved by the OPW and funding has been approved to move forward to design and planning stage. The Morell river has been accelerated in the eastern CFRAMS programme and flood mapping will be completed this April. Flood mapping will actually go on public display next week. Funding for the preparation of flood mitigation measures has been approved by the OPW.

Possible future schemes under the minor works programme include the Ballymore Eustace flood alleviation scheme. The preliminary report on this has been completed and we are doing the cost-benefit analysis at the moment. Donnacomper in Celbridge is the subject of an ongoing preliminary report, as is the Duncarrig flood alleviation scheme in Leixlip.

We are involved with the OPW in the delivery of catchment flood risk and management study schemes. In Kildare there are two catchments, the eastern river basin district, which includes the River Liffey and its tributaries, and the south-eastern basin, which includes the River Barrow. The preliminary flood risk assessment has been completed and a set of maps was produced by the OPW in the middle of last year and put on public display. Those give a broad overview of where flooding may occur. The review of those maps is under way and the final version of the flood hazard mapping is due at the end of this year or early next year. The flood risk management plans are due in 2015 and early 2016.

From a planning perspective, we generally, from an insurance point of view, deliver Part 8 provisions for all of these schemes. It is in the public domain that there was a problem and we are working to reduce the risk. Appropriate assessments and environmental impact assessments are undertaken as needed. The new county development plan was published last year and that includes strengthening objectives in the main plan in the local area plans and refers to the planning system and flood risk management guidelines as published by the OPW at the end of 2009. That would lead on to formal flood risk assessments in all our plans.

From an insurance point of view, we have found in recent years that once an area has flooded, people find it difficult to get property insurance. If we have delivered a scheme in an area, we would get a call from the public in that area to say that insurance is still not available. We decided to draft a standard letter we can send to these land owners to describe the work we have done in the area and detail design standards and outline how the risk of future flooding has been reduced. The template for the letter states that advice on flood alleviation works carried out in a particular area has been requested and in response, we can confirm that flood alleviation works have been completed. The letter then outlines the work that has been undertaken and states the design standard for the work is the 1% annual exceedance probability with a further allowance of 20% for climate change. It confirms works were carried out with due care and attention by or on behalf of Kildare County Council and that the council considers the successful completion of the flood alleviation works should reduce the risk of flooding in a particular estate. The letter states the notice is for information purposes only and Kildare County Council does not accept any liability in respect of the letter.