Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is not a committee in which I normally sit but Deputy Michael McGrath asked me to step in. Coming from east Galway and, with the Minister of State, representing the people of south Galway while living on the banks of the Shannon, I know how Storm Desmond on 9 December 2015 left a hand of destruction not for the first, but rather a second time in five years, in the area. I welcome all that is before me today and I have a number of questions.

I have engaged about the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management Study, CFRAMS, since its inception and I compliment all the engineering staff who attended the 29 various sites along the Shannon. At the beginning, with the buy-in factor, it seemed like a very drawn-out process but coming to the end, I compliment what we have seen in Ballinasloe, Portumna and, on the coastal side, in Oranmore. What is cost of the reports from CFRAMS to date? We have had three years of projects with three years of reports. They are vital and there have been ancillary works in considering the impact on the environment, etc., but where are we on the costings?

There is the issue of choosing locations and venues for meetings. Unfortunately, this year Gort was not a designated site because it is in the lowlands. I understand all that. There was slight confusion among the people of Gort and with me as in the previous two years, we held them in the community centre in Gort. Why did we not go back to the epicentre of the destruction in south Galway? When the CFRAMS concludes in its current format, when will we see the introduction of the projects and how will they be assessed for priority along the banks of the Shannon? When we assessed the CFRAMS project, it was based on towns but why was Banagher left out?