Mr. Mark Adamson:

It will vary around the country The primary focus of CFRAM is to protect against existing risk. There is a significant existing risk. We have seen in recent events that many properties have flooded so the primary focus is to tackle that immediate problem. We are aware, however, that climate change can make flooding worse so we need to take that into account. How exactly that is done will vary on a scheme-by-scheme basis. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to climate change adaptability for flood relief schemes. It depends very much on the local context of each individual town.

If one takes Crossmolina as an example, there is a bridge in the town. If the river level rises too high, it becomes a buoyancy issue and the historic bridge could pop up. We have a diversion channel which takes the flood flows around Crossmolina. In adapting to potential future change, we cannot send greater flows through the town and build walls because we have a problem with the bridge. The solution for adaption in Crossmolina is to enhance the capacity of the diversion channel to take the mid-range future scenario flow.

In that instance we took what we call the assumptive approach. We assume a certain design allowance for climate change. In other areas we may take an adaptive approach, particularly in regard to flood defences. We might build the foundations of a flood defence wall to a certain size, ensuring that if necessary they can be increased in height in future. In other instances there may be alternative approaches, such as providing storage upstream at a future date. This could help reduce flood flows through the town. In other instances such as Cork there will be a mix of all three approaches. There are a range of ways to ensure that our schemes are adaptable to climate change. We have to look at each of them on a case-by-case basis.

Notwithstanding that, we are maintaining the 100 year standard protection for fluvial schemes in the current scenario. In doing that, however, we must be conscious that in some instances we will need to raise the standards to cater for a 100 year projection that might come to pass in 50 years.

On using flood plains for storage, I refer in the first instance to the previous response. There are very few embanked channels in Ireland, so effectively the rivers are already using the storage available to them. Having said that, there are certain areas where we can effectively enhance the use of that storage. For example, to deal with flood conditions, the scheme in Clonakilty is looking at increasing the depth of storage in the flood plains upstream of the town. In the lower Lee Cork city scheme we are looking at utilising the rural land between Cork city and the Gearagh as washland, thereby making use of that additional storage during flood events.