Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for this opportunity to address the House on the subject of flooding and flood risk management. I have listened to most of the debate, which has been informative and constructive. I have taken note of a variety of issues that were raised by Deputies on all sides of the House. Some very constructive and useful ideas have been put forward by Members.

The unprecedented rainfall in December has had an impact throughout the country. I have seen at first hand in many towns and their surrounding areas, including Bandon, Skibbereen, Ballinasloe, Athlone, Graiguenamanagh, Thomastown, Crossmolina and in my own constituency, the impact of flooding on people, homes, properties, businesses, farms and communities as a whole. I am, therefore, acutely aware of the distress that people experience when their homes or businesses are inundated by flood waters or when they are fighting continuously, often for weeks on end, to keep out rising waters. My visits also revealed the resilience of people and communities. In its absence, the impact of the recent floods, from what were in many cases unprecedented river water levels, would have been significantly worse. I express my appreciation to all those I met during these past weeks, those I did not get to meet and to those still involved in the front-line response to flooding since early December.

The success of the response is in no small part due to the co-ordinated involvement of local authority staff, gardaí, Defence Forces personnel, Civil Defence volunteers, individuals and my own staff in the Office of Public Works. I recognise also the national co-ordination group for severe weather emergencies which has met almost daily since 3 December. Having attended their meetings and from their daily reports, it is important to acknowledge how the national perspective has allowed better co-ordination and resource mobilisation to manage locally emerging issues and challenges. It has also provided important key public safety messages throughout and provided the information to Government on how best to target appropriate support to both the response and recovery from flooding. It is important at the end of any severe weather event that one stops and reviews what went well and what could go better. That is what that national co-ordination group will undertake and it will report to Government in the coming weeks on that.

What is clear from the recent events and from today's informed and constructive debate is that, more than anything, people want assurance that the Government can provide support to them in response to a flood event and also assurance that it is planning to mitigate the risk from flooding in the future. The Government has provided and can provide that assurance to people. At the start of this debate, the Taoiseach set out the resources provided through and across all of Government to respond to the recent floods. This co-ordinated response, in line with the Government's national emergency framework, has been broad ranging and has targeted the immediate needs of people and communities through the delivery of sandbags and pumps to prevent flood waters entering properties, the deployment of 2,686 Defence Forces to assist local authorities, funding for food, clothes, accommodation, replacement of household equipment and structural repairs for those worst affected flooded households, and support to businesses and farmers to minimise the flooding impact.

It is important not to lose sight of the fact that the response to this flood event in some areas that were historically at risk from flooding came from the levels of protection that have already been provided through the flood defence schemes and other flood defence measures provided through the Office of Public Works. I thank Deputies on all sides for acknowledging that in the places where we have made the investment, those flood defences have made a significant difference. The OPW has already completed flood defence schemes in 36 areas and overall its flood protection measures protected 12,000 properties and €1.2 billion of economic activity from potential flooding in recent weeks. This includes towns such as Clonmel, Mallow and Fermoy where the river levels recorded the highest levels since records began, in some cases as far back as 1939.

In terms of planning for the future, the OPW is finalising a further seven schemes, including in Ennis, on the Dodder and in Bray, starting works in five other locations in 2016, including Claregalway and Bandon, and advancing the planning and design stages for 22 schemes, including the scheme for Crossmolina, which is at an advanced stage of planning. In addition, by mid-year the OPW will publish flood risk management plans for all areas throughout the country that are at significant risk of flooding from rivers and tides. Their publication will allow for a public consultation on these plans towards finalising the national flood risk plan by the end of 2016. Today's debate demonstrates the extensive awareness among Deputies of all parties of the Government's catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, programme. This programme has designated 300 areas, including 90 coastal areas, as being at potentially significant risk of impact from flooding, pending more detailed assessment and modelling. The detailed surveying and modelling now completed has involved 6,700 km of watercourse and 9,400 sq. km of floodplain. The CFRAM programme is proactively giving a clear and comprehensive picture of flood risk in areas at significant risk of flooding and is setting out how the risk can be prioritised and managed effectively and sustainably.

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Engineering consultants have been appointed by the Office of Public Works to implement the programme through six regional studies. Local authorities and a wide range of other statutory and non-statutory stakeholders are involved, in partnership with the OPW, on steering groups and progress groups across the six study areas. These structures are providing the requisite co-ordination for the development of the flood risk management plans.

One of the CFRAM study areas is the River Shannon catchment. It is the only one of the six that deals with an entire river catchment. The OPW has already discussed flood defence options with 50 of the 66 areas at risk along the Shannon. The Government has announced the establishment of a River Shannon co-ordination group. The terms of reference for this group are being worked upon by my office and will be announced next week. This group, informed by the full technical expertise of OPW, can co-ordinate the work of relevant bodies, from the local level up to Departments and other State agencies. I expect this group to outline its work plans and all of the State agencies to show us their work plans for the next three months, the next six months and the next year along the Shannon. I also expect the group to make recommendations to Government, where appropriate, on any legislative or regulatory change that may be required to help improve co-ordination. Extensive public consultation has been involved at all stages of the CFRAM programme, much of it within communities. Public consultation will remain a key and an important part to finalise the plans to manage the flooding risk.

Major flood relief schemes involve complex engineering and construction operations and have lengthy lead-in times. On average, this is a period of five years. The CFRAM is not just a report; its outcome equates to the first two years of that lead-in period for the 300 areas identified for flood defence schemes under the programme. This means the programme will deliver in the future feasible flood defence solutions over three years rather than five.

There have been some reports that the Government will not protect many properties at risk from flooding. The assumption in this regard is simply wrong for a number of reasons. First, in 2011, the preliminary flood risk assessment completed a cautious and indicative exercise based on initial and not detailed modelling, historical records and consultation. This identified preliminary properties at potential risk from flooding. It was not an exercise to confirm that risk but the objective of this preliminary exercise was to help identify possible location hot spots that would require further detailed assessment, through the CFRAM programme. This exercise also deliberately ignored the flood defence schemes in place at that time and that were providing protection to many of the properties identified at risk that, in reality, were no longer at risk. The detailed modelling now completed will provide the actual number of properties at risk when the CFRAM flood maps are completed. We have just completed a national public consultation on these maps.

Second, the Government's strategy is clear. It is to ensure feasible investment and measures to protect all properties at significant risk from flooding regardless of their location. The 2011 preliminary flood risk assessment informed this strategy and is being achieved through a number of ways including the following. On the CFRAM programme, while the overall number of properties has no relevance, up to 90% of the properties identified through the preliminary exercise have benefited from the detailed modelling and the flood risk plans will identify and inform the feasible solution for these. We also have the Government's 2009 minor works and coastal protection scheme, which remains open to local authorities and which provides the mechanism for local authorities to manage the risk from flooding in the remaining properties identified through the preliminary assessment. The Government has invested €29 million for 430 minor works projects since 2009 and many of these have involved permanent flood defence schemes. Regardless of location, feasible protection for some properties will involve individual property protection, which has been raised by a number of Deputies, and as a last resort, a voluntary home relocation scheme. The details for these schemes are being considered through the interdepartmental flood policy co-ordination group which will report to Government at the end of this month.

The interdepartmental committee was reconvened in July of last year and charged by the Government to prepare costed recommendations for the policies and measures that Government can introduce to support the management of flood risk nationally, including the implementation of the CFRAM plans. I have been chairing this committee comprised of sectoral representation and we have engaged in constructive cross-sectoral engagement. My office is co-ordinating the sectoral reports to Government before the end of the month. I was pleased to have led the initiative to introduce a number of important measures in response to the recent events that are reflective of the discussions by the group and will add significant value to its report. I would make the point that whoever is in government in this country in a few months will, through the work of this group, have a range of options available in respect of individual property protection, the roll-out of flood forecasting, the issue of flood insurance policy and the possibility of a voluntary home relocation scheme.

The House will be aware that we have given the go-ahead for a new flood forecasting and warning service. This will be a new operational unit within Met Éireann, with guidance on standards and performance independently overseen by the OPW. My intention is to establish a steering group, including representatives from the OPW, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Met Éireann and the local authorities to steer, support and oversee the establishment of the new service over the coming years. The service will be nationwide and it is expected that flooding from tidal-coastal sources will form part of the early discussions of this steering group.

On individual property protection, I recently announced the piloting of two community-based pilots to inform the implementation of the flood risk management plans. These are, first, a feasibility study at Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh, where Kilkenny County Council has employed consultants to carry out the study that are due to be appointed in January 2016. The development of all possible feasible flood defence options for these towns is an ongoing part of the CFRAM process. Mayo County Council is also considering, at my invitation, the installation of flood gates for some properties identified by the community in Crossmolina as an interim measure in order to help mitigate any further flood damage pending the completion of the defence scheme for the town.

The interdepartmental flood policy co-ordination group is considering criteria and possible delivery options for a targeted scheme that would benefit isolated properties, as distinct from the community based approach being piloted. In addition, we are looking, as I have stated, at the home relocation issue and at the issue of community resilience, and also a review of the planning and development guidelines.

I assure the House that the Government's efforts to manage flood risk are not receding with the flood waters. On the contrary, the Government's past investment that protected at least 12,000 properties already across the country is being built upon. The OPW has 34 schemes in its pipeline of works and will have plans on how to protect areas at significant risk from flooding across the country by this summer. More funding is in place than ever before. We will spend more on flood relief than we did during the so-called Celtic tiger. We will spend €430 million on flood defences over the next five years - that is more than we spent on it as a country during the past 20 years. Another way of looking at it is that for every €100 spent by Government last year on flood defences, it will spend €155 over the next six years. I am confident that the delivery of the Government's strategy to manage flood risk that I have outlined will better prepare Ireland fight the threat of nature from flooding in the future and I look forward to continuing to work with Deputies on all sides as we deliver on our ambitious programme of a new national flood defence plan for Ireland.

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