Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the delegation. The CFRAM programme is an excellent undertaking on the part of the OPW. It is thorough and scientific, and we see what the OPW can do, in conjunction with consultants, in respect of some of the major flood defences that have been built. They have worked. The problem is that they take time, as the Minister of State has highlighted, and unfortunately flooding is recurring.

I understand that Crossmolina has already been touched upon, but literally three weeks ago we nearly had the very same premises flooded again. The media gets very taken by the fact that there has been building on flood plains, which of course we consider daft, but for the most part, the places in Mayo that are being flooded are long-standing towns such as Crossmolina and parts of Ballina, where I am from. Moreover, they are the older parts of town and we can definitely see the results of climate change there. Sometimes the building on flood plains argument is thrown in as a red herring to distract from spending and who should foot the bill. People have traded and lived in these homes for years and it is only now that this regular flooding and the threat of flooding are happening.

The Minister of State has highlighted the importance of local authorities making applications under the minor works scheme. While some local authorities have been a bit backward in doing this, it is very important. I would like the Minister of State to consider Crossmolina, as people there really are very fearful as this winter approaches. I thank the Minister of State for responding to my invitation and that of the people when he visited the area during the summer. It is an issue on which he has taken a very proactive approach and he has responded with great integrity to the concerns of people. However, I am not too happy with how the Office of Public Works, OPW, has performed in that area. During the previous December I had his predecessor as Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, down to visit and the pilot project for the floodgates - to which the Minister of State has just referred - was launched. Between that time and the current Minister of State's arrival on the scene, no criteria had been developed with regard to the rolling out of that project. I believe doing so was the responsibility of the OPW. As for the flood wall, we only found out shortly before his latest visit - courtesy of the Minister of State - that funding had been allocated to the local authority to build a flood wall as a minor flood relief scheme. There had been no word of it but in every single month since the then Minister of State, Deputy Harris visited, there had been monthly meetings between the OPW, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the county council and locals.

There is also an issue with the clearing out, which has been touched on by Senator Burke, and on the issue of who is or is not responsible. In my experience it has not just been since last December in case this sounds overly harsh or critical with regard to the OPW. The clearing and cleaning of the river needs to be addressed. I am not talking about interfering with the river bed. I have sent photographs to the Minister of State which show an entire encroachment into the river of vegetation coming from the river bank. This is not just trees overhanging which can be clipped but proper clearing that should be done, not even by going into the river but by a machine on the river bank. This is not being done. The OPW is very much operating within statute with regard to its obligations and from a statutory point of view, under section 37 of the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, the OPW is required to carry out maintenance of a river and its tributaries where it has carried out a drainage scheme. My information, on which I have never been contradicted and which many officials will state off the record, is that no clearing or cleaning has ever been carried out of the River Deel, which flows through Crossmolina, in the section of the river for which the OPW is responsible. It is belatedly going in there now after there was nearly a flood three weeks ago. I was there twice last November and December and it is absolutely horrible. I refer to everyone here who is aware of people and businesses that have experienced flooding and the thought that we are not taking every step that can be taken. I reiterate the Minister of State has moved things on but I am sorry to say things should have been moving before this. Whether it is Crossmolina or the River Moy in Ballina, no clearing by the OPW is going on. Why is it suddenly now going in and doing some clearing it should have been doing for years? This is an old chestnut and I do not believe the OPW is complying with its statutory obligations. I believe it is only interested in the longer-term solution and not so much in the shorter-term solutions. The response of the OPW to the issue of clearing the river is that it will not have that much of an impact. A flood took place in November when two to three inches went in. If those two to three inches could have been pulled back it might have saved some premises at that time. The Minister of State and I have had this discussion. I feel that a real spotlight needs to go on how the OPW has conducted itself in this regard.