Mr. John Sydenham:

I thank the committee for inviting the OPW to the meeting to discuss the problem of flooding at Ballycar on the Limerick-Galway railway. The OPW engaged constructively with both Clare County Council and Iarnród Éireann over recent years in considering the flooding problem at Ballycar and participated in a working group on the matter convened by the council in 2014.

In 2011, Iarnród Éireann commissioned a leading international firm in the area of flood risk assessment, RPS Group, to undertake a study of Ballycar Lough and its associated flooding. However, the OPW had concerns about the solutions proposed in the 2011 RPS Group report, specifically that what was being proposed by way of drainage of the lough would involve discharging the flood waters downstream to an embanked area that experiences flooding occasionally, contains some critical low lying air traffic control infrastructure, was in part the subject of significant environmental designation and where discharges to the sea were subject to the tidal cycle. The OPW identified that the proposals in the report would require some further mitigating measures not taken into account at the time.

The RPS Group report also did not include a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed flood relief works. Proposed works on this scale could only proceed on the basis of an appraisal which indicated clear economic justification for spending in the order of €10 million. The estimated cost of raising the railway line was only marginally more than the cost of the flood relief works that were proposed. However, when account was taken of the additional cost of further mitigating measures that would be required but were not covered in the report, the economic argument clearly tilted in favour or raising the railway line. The OPW has been clear in its position that as Iarnród Éireann is the primary stakeholder and beneficiary from any proposals to resolve the flooding problem at Ballycar, it is for that body to take the lead in resolving the matter.

At a meeting of the working group in September 2014, Iarnród Éireann confirmed its acceptance that it had the lead role in resolving the railway line flooding problem. Following the meeting of the working group in 2014, RPS Group was requested by Iarnród Éireann to review its 2011 report.