Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“calls for:

- further progression of the whole of Government approach that is delivering returns to managing the flood risk and coastal change for rural Ireland;

- an examination of the current regulatory requirements to be carried out; and

- the Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with responsibility for the Office of Public Works to undertake a consultation through the Oireachtas committee structures on how best to deliver flood relief measures into the future given the challenges of climate change.”

The motion put down by the Deputies is to question the scope of and progress being made by the Government to address the flood risk in rural Ireland. I want to assure Deputies that I am very familiar with the devastation that can be caused by flooding for individual homeowners, businesses, landowners and communities, particularly in rural areas. Since my appointment as Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, OPW, I have visited a number of areas affected by recent storms and flooding, including Kenmare, Skibbereen, Bantry, Clifden, Dunmanway and Kilmallock. I acknowledge the Deputies who were present for those visits and the support they gave. I have witnessed at first hand the damage caused, and I have met and spoken with the people and business owners directly affected.

The Government has a very strong record in regard to managing flood risk in rural Ireland through a whole-of-government approach. I attended the last meeting of the interdepartmental flood policy co-ordination group and I was impressed by the extent of measures already in place and being progressed to avoid construction in flood-prone areas, protecting at risk communities and responding to reduce the impacts of flood events.

I want to address some elements of the motion put down by the Deputies relating to river maintenance. In summary, the Deputies are calling for local authorities to have the powers, autonomy and ring-fenced funding to clear rivers, streams, gullies and drains; to remove obstructions along rivers; and to cut back roadside verges and hedges. The Deputies want to encourage the use of dredging and ensure that farmers and landowners be allowed to remove branches or trees from rivers or streams, and take the build-up of gravel and silt out of rivers. They are also calling for the OPW to carry out programmed maintenance on rivers and streams.

Statutory responsibilities for channel maintenance are clearly defined for both the OPW and the local authorities. Funding and statutory powers set out by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage allow local authorities meet their responsibility for the maintenance of some 4,600 km of drainage district river channels and address local flooding issues, including verge cutting, tree cutting and cleaning of gullies. Local authorities are an important source of guidance to landowners for the maintenance of rivers and watercourses on their lands, including tree cutting and silt removal. I assure the Deputies that I will work with my ministerial colleague in regard to the powers and funding from his Department to local authorities to ensure they can adequately address river and roadside maintenance and also in regard to regulations guiding landowners’ maintenance of watercourses on their lands.

The OPW is responsible for the 11,500 km of river channel, including approximately 800 km of embankments, which form part of the arterial drainage schemes completed since 1945. The annual maintenance programme by the OPW protects 260,000 ha of agricultural land. While there are significant environmental issues to be addressed, the OPW does consider river dredging where it can be effective in reducing flood water levels.

The Deputies are calling for the Government to fast-track the delivery of the planned 150 flood relief schemes; make changes to the OPW’s minor mitigation works and coastal protection scheme; and, informed by a review, consider a new single authority to address flooding issues on the Shannon, an issue I addressed in the House last night.

The catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, programme is informing the Government’s approach to managing flood risk. It was the largest study ever undertaken in the State of our risk from significant flood events - the 100-year floods. Its output, the 29 flood risk management plans, gave the Government the evidence to progress some 150 flood relief schemes in addition to the 46 major flood relief schemes completed, which together will protect 95% of at-risk properties. These additional schemes are being funded, as Deputy Nolan said, with €1 billion as part of the Government's National Development Plan 2018-2027. This level of funding reflects how motivated the Government is to protect people, properties, businesses and communities from flooding risk. In just two years, this funding has allowed the OPW to accelerate, from 33 to 92, the number of schemes being brought through to planning, design and construction.

The OPW staffing levels delivering flood risk management have increased by 22% since 2017.

Delivering flood relief schemes takes time to ensure that we design them appropriately and effectively, do not cause flooding elsewhere, and meet the regulatory requirements. I accept that progress on this can be slow. Even after consent is granted, schemes are still at risk of judicial review, as we are seeing with the Morrison’s Island scheme in Cork. I have met Claire Nash, a restaurant owner in this area, who has invested significantly in her business. She told me that her premises was flooded in both 2009 and 2014 and that she still cannot get flood insurance. We are now two years on from having submitted the scheme to An Bord Pleanála for planning permission and, in the meantime, homes and businesses remain exposed to repeated flooding time and again. I issued an appeal during the week, which I reiterate now, in respect of the Morrison's Island scheme.

The current regulatory framework is such that progress by my office in advancing its programme of activities is significantly impacted by a broad range of regulatory requirements which must be addressed and complied with. Like all individuals, agencies and companies, we have to comply with the requirements of environmental and planning legislation and these are simply outside the control of the Office of Public Works. That said, I and the OPW are actively engaged with other Departments to ensure that required flood measures are delivered to communities in the shortest timeframe. To that end, it is my intention to bring to Government a memorandum detailing the progress of the roll-out to date of flood relief schemes and the policy areas on which we believe further interdepartmental work will be needed. There will be a particular emphasis on the areas of planning and environmental compliance.

Since 2009, funding of €39 million under the OPW’s minor works scheme is protecting 7,100 properties across more than 580 projects. Two thirds of these are outside of the CFRAM study areas. The scheme is a valuable source of funding for local authorities to address local flooding issues. For example, while the OPW does not have statutory maintenance responsibility for the Flesk and Laune rivers, referred to by the Deputies in their motion, the OPW has approved €240,000, or 90%, of the costs for a project at Flesk River, Glenflesk. This is improving conveyance between Curreal Bridge at Glenflesk to Gortahoosh Bridge and Loo Bridge. While funding available under the scheme, following a review, has recently increased by 50% to €750,000, I am glad to give consideration to increasing this threshold to €1 million, something I had already commenced before the motion was tabled.

I spoke in the House yesterday evening on the River Shannon Management Agency Bill 2020. I announced during that debate that I am undertaking an examination over the coming months of the Shannon flood risk State agency co-ordination and working group’s legislative landscape, including a review of the current regulatory environment, to inform the establishment of this group on a statutory basis.

I turn now to the parts of the motion put down by the Deputies regarding humanitarian assistance, flood insurance and emergency response. I pay tribute to the local authorities and to my own staff in the OPW for their response to severe weather emergencies, including flooding. The EU Solidarity Fund is intended for overwhelming disasters following very severe and catastrophic events. I am advised by my Department that any application based solely on damage identified by local authorities would not meet the damage threshold of 0.6% of GNI.

The Government’s once-off voluntary homeowners relocation scheme is providing humanitarian assistance to those affected by floods in 2015 and for which there are no viable engineering solutions. My colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, is introducing a scheme to work with those worst affected farmers.

I have seen at first hand how flooding creates extreme hardship, in particular for those who do not have flood insurance. The Government’s humanitarian assistance schemes provide funds to homeowners, businesses, voluntary and community organisations that are impacted by a flood event. I intend to work with my colleagues, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Social Protection, in regard to the criteria for these humanitarian schemes. However, Deputies will acknowledge that if these schemes were extended to cover the uninsured excess in policies, it is very likely that the excess in all flood policies would move to exclude any amount covered by the State, effectively making the State the first line insurer.

In return for its investment in flood relief schemes, the Government expects protected homeowners and businesses to be able to access affordable flood insurance cover. However, through the OPW’s memorandum of understanding with Insurance Ireland, we are already seeing the level of insurance cover increasing in protected areas from an average of 77% in 2015 up to 93% today. However, the level of cover in areas protected by demountable defences remains stubbornly low. I will be working with my colleague, the Minister for Finance, to try to resolve the concerns expressed by the insurance industry about demountable defences and will explore how greater transparency to flood insurance can be achieved.

I want to address the parts of the motion addressing climate change and a coastal strategy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reported that for a 1.5°C rise in temperature, the global mean sea level could rise by up to approximately 1 m by 2100. Projections of more intense Atlantic storms could potentially increase surge events and wave heights. Met Éireann has also projected that in Ireland, the autumns and winters to come will be wetter, with a possible increase in heavy precipitation events of up to 30%.

The impact from sea level rises and more intense storms increases the risk of coastal erosion. The Government has established a cross-departmental group to address this cross-sectoral issue. I, along with my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, attended the first meeting of this group and we intend working with it over the coming months.

In the time allowed I have given just some detail of the work completed and under way by the Government that is comprehensively managing Ireland’s flood risk and coastal strategy. I will work extremely hard to ensure that the greatest possible progress is made on the delivery of a very ambitious programme of investment in flood defence and flood risk management measures.

I acknowledge the motion. I hope the Deputies see the benefit of the amendment I put down. I ask them to work collectively with me in the coming months to try to see what measures we can implement. If there are regulatory or legislative amendments they believe they can bring forward in the interim, I will certainly consider them.

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