Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 July 2016

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management

9:10 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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A planner’s discretion is very constrained if there is a map from the OPW saying there is a flood risk here of one in 500 years.

The second point is that when people try to buy property in those areas, or in a town that never flooded, the bank’s solicitor checks it out and discovers it is a flood area and the bank will not advance the loan. I have encountered people who cannot sell houses that have never flooded because of an OPW map that has been incorporated into the local development plan. Do you see the problem?