Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Many colleagues have described the general effects of the very severe weather and I will not go through them in any greater detail. I want recognise the considerable difficulty and trauma that communities all over the country have gone through due to the terrible weather before and across Christmas and empathise with them, as other Deputies have done. In my comments I will focus on the effect of flooding on the road network and the consequences for both the road network and the broader transport network and in that context I wish to acknowledge some of the difficulties that arose across the period.

From a rail point of view and within public transport, the western rail corridor, between Limerick, Ennis and Galway, was disrupted due to flooding and currently remains closed. The Dublin-to-Sligo service, between Carrick-on-Shannon and Longford, was suspended as a result of both Storm Desmond and Storm Frank. The Killarney-to-Tralee line was closed for a short period. The Dublin-to-Rosslare Europort service, between Gorey and Rosslare, was suspended due to flooding, as was the Dublin-to-Belfast Enterprise service. In each case, Irish Rail put in place bus transfers to accommodate passengers. In addition, erosion has occurred close to the Dublin-to-Wexford railway line, just north of Wicklow town. The required emergency protection works by Irish Rail, and rock armour, was placed to protect the railway over the following days and the residual damage and cost of all of this is being assessed. In the case of Bus Éireann, its services are dependent on the roads that we are discussing and in a number of cases, disruptions occurred due to flooding.

However, the most extensive transport impact to date of this weather has been to the local, regional and national road network. Across this period the Road Safety Authority was active in supporting and sharing safety messages for all road users and in a number of cases, we saw damage to roads. For example, in the case of Storm Desmond, flooding occurred mainly in the western coastal counties, particularly the Moy, Clare and Shannon catchments, and following Storm Frank, the main areas affected were along the south coast and in the catchment of the different rivers there.

During the height of the flooding, there were numerous sections of national roads affected. Currently, a number of these remain impassable, including a section of the N65, between Portumna and Borrisokane, and the N18, the Limerick-to-Galway road, at Laban. In regard to non-national roads, we face a situation where many regional and local roads across the country were flooded and closed. For example, Cavan County Council alone reported last week that approximately 50 roads were impassible, many under 1 m of water, and as recently as Monday last, 20 roads were reported as being closed in east Cork, mainly due to the disintegration of those roads. I am aware of other reports of significant damage to roads in many counties across the country.

With regard to tourism infrastructure, a number of local authorities have reported damage to sections of the Wild Atlantic Way and in regard to greenways, my officials are currently ascertaining whether any significant damage has been done to those State assets. In many cases it is still difficult to form a final assessment of the damage that has been done to local and regional roads because of the number of such roads that are still under water but my officials, in conjunction with the local authorities affected and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, are working hard to form an estimate of what that damage will be.

I appreciate that many communities have shown great resilience in dealing with their roads being impassable due to the presence of water but they have a reasonable expectation that when that water recedes local authorities will be in a position to be able to begin work restoring those roads, making them passable and allowing local authorities make use of them. We are doing that work at present with local authorities. When that cost becomes clearer to us, as I hope it soon will, the Department and I will work within Government to put in place a plan to respond to that.

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