Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

I am replying to this Adjournment debate matter on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, who is unable, due to another commitment, to be in the House this afternoon. The Minister has asked me to apologise for his unavoidable absence.

The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland and one of the larger rivers in western Europe. The river drains a catchment of 14,700 sq km to the Shannon Estuary, an area of approximately one fifth of the area of Ireland. The river is characterised by relatively steep upper and lower sections and a very flat gradient through its middle reach from Lough Ree to Lough Derg. The low-lying lands surrounding the River Shannon, or the callows, especially those along the middle section, have experienced regular flooding for centuries.

The Minister of State and his officials in the Office of Public Works are aware of the current level of flooding in the Shannon callows. While winter and occasional summer flooding is a feature of the callows, severe flooding of the kind being experienced at present is not. The current exceptional flooding is due to the unusually heavy rainfall we have experienced in the month of May. It may well prove to be the highest May rainfall on record.

I understand that the farming area to which the Deputy refers lies within a special area of conservation. With regard to the question of possible compensation for the financial loss incurred by farmers as a result of flooding in this area, it is therefore primarily a matter for consideration by the Department of Agriculture and Food or the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

While it is true that the OPW was involved in recent years in overseeing a number of humanitarian aid schemes administered on the OPW's behalf by the Irish Red Cross for the relief of those who had suffered hardship as a result of severe flooding, I stress that each of these schemes was only introduced on foot of a Government decision and only in instances where the damage had been especially severe and widespread throughout the country. The schemes were humanitarian and were designed to relieve hardship. They were not compensation for losses. While some of the earlier schemes provided assistance where hardship resulted from damage to businesses and farm buildings, provision of aid in the more recent schemes was restricted to hardship resulting from damage to homes only.

The OPW no longer has any responsibility for such Government approved humanitarian aid schemes. This function has now been transferred from the OPW to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, following the recommendations of the interdepartmental flood policy review group. The Government approved the implementation of the recommendations of the flood policy review group in September 2004. One of the review group's recommendations was that:

[T]he provision of emergency assistance (Humanitarian Aid) where serious flooding has occurred to be limited to situations where damage has occurred to homes and to be administered by the community welfare services of the regional health boards, in conjunction with, as appropriate, local community and voluntary groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Responsibility for future programmes of humanitarian aid has therefore now been transferred from the OPW to the Department of Social and Family Affairs under whose aegis the community welfare services operate.

The Office of Public Works has no responsibility in the maintenance of the River Shannon. It would be open to the commissioners under the provisions of the Arterial Drainage Act 1945 and the Arterial Drainage (Amendment) Act 1995 to prepare a scheme to prevent or substantially reduce flooding in an area. The possibility of undertaking an arterial drainage scheme for the River Shannon has been considered on a number of occasions and has been ruled out on both economic and environmental grounds.

In 2003, the Commissioners of Public Works undertook a further preliminary assessment of the Shannon flood problem. This reviewed the previous reports and their conclusions in the light of the changes that had occurred in the catchment in the intervening 40 years. The review considered a variety of issues, for example, conditions in and competing uses of the river, perceived changed climate patterns, changed agricultural regulations and practices, different economic circumstances for agriculture and other industries, the higher values being placed on environmental and heritage assets and tourism opportunities.

This was to establish if any possibility existed that a more detailed study might identify viable options to alleviate the flooding problem. It recommended that a pre-feasibility study of possible flood risk management opportunities be undertaken. That study was completed in late 2004 and copies were given to the stakeholders.

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