Mr. Jim Casey:

Probably one of the key drivers of our focus on the environment in the past couple of decades originated with the EIA directive coming from Europe. This has been there for many decades, so it is something on which we have had a lot of practice. As the Deputy will appreciate, we look at a number of key criteria when we are evaluating flood relief schemes. We look at the economic justification for the scheme, the technical merit of the scheme and how effective it is in achieving the flood mitigation to the typical 100-year standard we target but the environment is one of the three key pillars of all our projects. Part of that involves looking at a broad range of solution options. We do not just come up with one solution because we think it is the best one. We apply a multi-criterion analysis and look at those three key criteria. There are many sub-criteria under that when we start to look closely at the environmental scores of a particular solution. We go through probably a series of public consultations around scheme options. For example, in Midleton, we have had three public consultations to date looking to present the whole range of options to the public to get the view of the public on the solution options to inform what we finally select as a preferred option and then looking at the environmental impact of that. We then have to carry out very detailed environmental impact assessment reports where we look at all the different parameters of the environment, whether we are looking at fish or the full spectrum of biodiversity. We are looking at flora, fauna and the total impact. What is the description of the existing environment? What is the scheme? How does one interact with the other, what are the impacts and how do we mitigate those impacts?

We come up with a series of mitigations to the scheme, which are set out in great detail within the environmental impact assessment reports. All that information is fed into the consenting process for the scheme. It is part of the package seeking consent for the schemes we construct. Invariably, those environmental mitigation measures are picked up by the planning authorities and reinforced as conditions of planning, but we then have to go a stage further. After we secure consent and go to the implementation of the construction phase of the scheme, we also have to carry out construction environmental management plans, CEMPs, which get into a lot of detail not just about what we are constructing and the environmental impacts of that but also about how we are constructing it, the methods we can use and the methods we cannot use.

We are no strangers to what the Deputy outlined. To go back to his original question about where the approach comes from, the EIA regulations were a key driver for that but, of course, there are now many other drivers. We heard just last week about the passing of the nature restoration law, we are very familiar with the biodiversity crisis and we are now in the third round of the water framework directive. All these issues have to be part of the broad regulatory environment we have to navigate, and we have to succeed in demonstrating to our planning authorities that the solutions we are coming up with are optimal and will have the least environmental impact possible.