Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the River Shannon Management Agency Bill 2020. Its purpose is to establish a River Shannon management agency on a statutory basis within the OPW with overall responsibility for the assessment and management of flood risk and flood defences along the River Shannon. I can sense the sincere passion in the voices of those who have spoken on this very important matter.

The River Shannon is a valuable natural resource that is important to Ireland’s economy, society, culture and environment. It serves an important purpose for electricity generation, navigation, tourism and fishing. It creates employment and supports these activities. It rises in County Cavan and flows for 260 km before entering the Shannon Estuary at Limerick city. An unusual feature of the River Shannon is that it is remarkably flat, with the majority of the fall in height taking place on the 24 km stretch between Killaloe and Limerick. This is the natural drainage basin of the Shannon which drains an extensive area of central Ireland. However, these features can combine, resulting in flooding.

The Government has a plan in place to deal with flooding on the Shannon through the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, programme. This programme was the largest study of flood risk ever undertaken by the State. The output of the CFRAM programme was the 29 flood risk management plans to address the assessed flood risk nationally, which were approved by the Government in 2018. It examined 80% of the properties at risk from future flooding which involved a study of 300 communities nationally. One of the six CFRAM study areas included a dedicated study of the flood risk of the Shannon river basin district.

The flood risk management plans, FRMPs, derived from the CFRAM programme include 34 new flood relief schemes to protect towns in the Shannon river basin district. These new schemes, together with 11 additional schemes already completed, will protect 95% of properties at significant risk from flooding in the future. Of the 34 new schemes to be delivered, work has commenced on 25 and they are at various stages of development.

The Shannon State agency co-ordination working group set up in 2016 is co-ordinating the overall response to flood risk management on the Shannon informed by assessment of flood risk carried out under the CFRAM. The working group is performing well. It has identified and delivered activities that are providing flood relief in the area and is focused on providing additional flood relief measures to protect communities, businesses, landowners and property along the Shannon. However, the current regulatory framework in which it operates is such that progress in advancing its programme of activities can be impacted by the range of regulatory requirements which must be addressed and complied with. This can lead to delays in implementing its programme of activities.

When facing a major challenge such as this it makes sense for us to look to other European countries which have successfully faced down similar challenges. The Dutch are renowned for their skill in flood management. We might think of their dykes that prevent the North Sea from flooding a country that is mostly below sea level but the Dutch are also at risk of being flooded by the rivers that flow in from neighbouring countries. For hundreds of years, they have developed techniques that have protected them from flooding. It makes absolute sense to learn from their expertise. We should collaborate with the Dutch and learn how they manage their high-tech room for the river approach to mitigating flooding. It is not just their technology but also how they manage to get different agencies to work together. The Delta programme, which still operates, is a scheme by which the Dutch get their local and regional authorities and water boards to co-operate in a way that allows a centralised and effective delivery of schemes. I recently met officials from the Dutch embassy to discus other areas of expertise the Dutch have in areas such as sustainable transport and retrofitting. We should reopen that channel and collaborate to see what we can gain from that.

I am fully supportive of an examination of the current regulatory requirements as they pertain to management of the Shannon, as has been outlined by the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donovan, and I look forward to contributing to this examination and to its outcome in due course.

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