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

I thank the Deputy. I have set out in tabular form in the following link the detail on the amount of funding approved for each local authority under the OPW minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme in each of the years 2018 to 2021 and to date in 2022.

As the Deputy will be aware, the purpose of the scheme is to provide funding to local authorities to undertake minor flood mitigation works or studies to address localised fluvial flooding and coastal protection problems within their administrative areas. The scheme generally applies where a solution can be readily identified and achieved in a short timeframe. The works to be funded are carried out under local authority powers and ongoing maintenance of the completed works is the responsibility of the local authority.

Under the scheme, the OPW reviews all applications to ensure the proposed works are technically, environmentally and economically feasible. The scheme applies to all eligible projects with an estimated cost of up to €750,000 and 90% of the overall costs for approved projects are paid by my office.

Since the scheme was established in 2009, 7,600 properties have been protected through 643 minor works projects at a cost to the end of 2021 of €43.4 million. Approved works typically include the provision of flood barriers, remedial works to embankments, installation of trash screens, works to culverts, drainage and channel widening. Since 2018, funding of €19.4 million was approved by the OPW for 212 individual projects across 27 local authorities. Of these, the highest funding approval, €2.2 million, was granted to Galway County Council. Cork County Council was allocated €2 million, Kerry County Council, €2 million, and Fingal County Council, €1.4 million.

Over this time, five of the 212 applications from local authorities were for projects of over €500,000 each, with 86% of all applications estimated to cost less than €150,000.

During that same period the amount of funding drawdown by local authorities for approved flood projects was €9.6 million. The commencement and progression of any works for which funding is approved is a matter for each local authority concerned. Often drawdown will take up to five years after approval.

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