Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The consultants are in the process of updating the scheme's programme, which is planned to be considered and approved, as I said, by the project steering group at its next meeting, tomorrow, 10 July. When approved, the steering group will publish the updated scheme programme to the project's website thereafter. I understand that this has been a long process; however, due to the increased scoping, such a process was necessary. The Deputy is very familiar with the process so I do not need to go back over it and the reasons.

The Deputy is correct about the budget. The original estimate was a budget of €9.5 million. Given that the scale of the project and the required defences are far greater and protect over three times as many properties, the best estimate for this scheme at the time is most likely in the region of €50 million, the most recent estimate provided by Galway City Council. The Government is committed to design and completion of the flood relief scheme for Galway city and has committed to funding the scheme once a viable scheme is identified through the national development plan, which has allocated €1.3 million.

May I make an observation? I understand that this is currently at stage 1, development and preliminary design. We have reached a point where a very important meeting will take place tomorrow, so this is moving forward. It not at the speed one would like; however, various iterations arose for genuine reasons. Ultimately, whatever scheme is built must be fit for purpose, which I believe it will be. The Deputy has asked three questions. I have already told her the date of the next meeting to approve the scheme's programme. When will it be published? The updated scheme programme will be published to the project's website thereafter. I hope that will happen as quickly as possible. Finally, the Deputy made reference to the budget, but the main thing is that the project is very much now moving forward.

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