Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the time I have I will deal with Limerick. I have had various discussions with the Minister of State and his officials. The Minister of State has stated that the output from the ongoing CFRAM study is a comprehensive suite of maps for 300 communities. That should be at least 302. Two communities are not included: Castleconnell village and Montpelier alongside each other. There is a stretch of water from Annacotty village as far as O'Brien's Bridge in Montpelier that has consistently flooded in 2009 and most recently in late 2015 and early 2016.

Public consultations took place in the Castle Oaks hotel on Thursday, 1 September. More than 100 people from the area attended. Lo and behold, we found no maps for Castleconnell village and Montpelier. The CFRAM draft document states that no residential properties, business properties or utilities are at risk in Castleconnell village. That makes no sense. I have asked the OPW to go back to the drawing board and produce draft maps with planned flood relief measures for Castleconnell village and Montpelier. I want an update on when that will happen. That should be followed by public consultation with the local residents in the Castleconnell village and Montpelier area. I ask the Minister of State for an update on that. Given that homes and businesses in Castleconnell village and Montpelier had been exposed to flooding for at least a month in 2016 and the same in 2009, when the people turned up at that meeting they were shocked to find that effectively the OPW claimed it was not a problem in that area.