Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the specifics. It is very important to get this right. There is a time for studies and a time for action, but in relation to coastal erosion, it is very important that if the taxpayer is going to pump millions of euro, or more, into funding schemes related to coastal erosion, we get it right. To its credit, Clare County Council has submitted seven applications to my office. One application at Clonahinchy for a study has been sanctioned and that is ongoing, six were only submitted last month. My office is currently examining them. I will raise this with my officials and we expect decisions shortly.

The Deputy is right about coastal protection. The Irish coastal protection strategy study is a major examination to assess and identify the most significant areas of erosion risk for the entire national coastline. This major study is effectively complete and it will provide invaluable and essential information required to inform policy in this area. It is mapping for the first time the entire national coastline and the erosion hazard maps produced and published under the study will be available to local planners to inform and guide decisions on local coastal planning issues.

I am not trying to pass the buck, but planning plays a role. I have stood in far too many homes and on far too much commercial land where planning permission was granted, perhaps in the knowledge, or at the very least in the ignorance, of flood risk. That has brought misery to many people and one thing we must get right is planning decisions in this country. That is the responsibility of our local authorities.

I will move on to the issue of responsibility. The Deputy is dead right. Who is responsible for the Shannon? Everybody. When everybody is responsible, nobody is responsible. So many organisations are responsible that things fall between the stools. Part of the objective of CFRAM, the catchment flood risk assessment and management, is to look at 300 areas in this country at risk of flooding, not just to decide what needs to be done, but also to assign responsibility for doing it. Is it a matter for the OPW? Is it for a State agency? Is it for the local authority? That process will come to a conclusion this year and will be implemented next year.

Regarding the issue with the IFA and embankments, I hope to be in a position to meet with a delegation from the IFA and Oireachtas Members in Clare shortly. The crucial question is who is responsible. Is it the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, is it the county council, or is it the OPW? We need to get people around the table and I am happy to facilitate getting people around a table in order to get to a conclusion.

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