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

I was in County Louth with our colleague, Deputy O'Dowd, not too long ago, where I met with officials from Louth County Council. In the case of Annagassan and Termonfeckin, the CFRAM process investigated possible structural flood relief measures for both but economically viable schemes have not been identified. The OPW is undertaking a review of the risk in both communities and the likely costs and benefits of the scheme will be included in that. The OPW has put in place a process for undertaking such a scheme viability review, the purpose of which is to determine whether potential schemes should be taken to the full flood relief scheme project stages. Once the outcome of the SVR is known, the OPW will discuss the results with Louth County Council. Further work on this is being undertaken between the OPW and the council. We appreciate that the risk will not go away in these vulnerable locations. All of the Louth coastline, through the Meath coastline and into north County Dublin is a particularly vulnerable area. A 1 m rise in Irish seawater levels is not going to lessen that vulnerability.

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