Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

There are three flood relief schemes in Laois, in Clonaslee, Mountmellick and Portarlington. I welcome that they are progressing and I hope the Minister of State puts some fire under them, but the facts are that the schemes and the processes are too slow. I welcome that money was approved recently for the Clonaslee scheme. The council has approval to go to planning there with the OPW for that, and that is to be lodged with An Bord Pleanála very soon, but that could take a year and then a further three years to build. The area was flooded in 2017. That would mean 12 years, assuming everything goes right, to complete the scheme. It is just too long.

As regards the Mountmellick scheme, the Minister of State saw the properties in Mountmellick that were flooded when he visited the area. Again, there was flooding in November 2017. That scheme is with the OPW seeking permission to go to planning and An Bord Pleanála. There are particular issues in the Derrycloney area. Residents are concerned about unintended consequences of water being moved from one place to another but the council is to come back there with an update, a report, to those residents within six weeks. The cost of the scheme is expected to be between €15 million and €17 million. Hundreds of houses will be protected when the scheme is in place but, again, it is just way too long. As regards the timeline there, again, you are talking about 15 years in that case before the scheme will be completed.

In the case of Portarlington, there was flooding in 2017. The surveys are done, the council is progressing its work as quickly as it can - environmental studies, surveys, etc. - and the design is substantially completed, but it has other stages to go through. Costs are estimated to be in excess of €15 million. I am told, however, that that will take another seven years to go through planning and construction, so that will be 15 years from 2017 before it will be finished. That is just too long. The schemes are too slow. Thirteen or 15 years as a best-case scenario is just way too long.

The one message I hear from local authority officials in a number of counties is that the Department needs to give more decision-making powers to the county councils. There are executive engineers and senior executive engineers. They are all qualified people. Having archaeological reports, hydrology reports and environmental and ecology reports all going to An Bord Pleanála slows the process. The delays are causing risk of further flooding. People are terrified of further flooding and rising costs. Does the Minister of State remember Mountmellick being talked about? The figure for that was between €3 million and €4 million. We are now looking at €17 million as the current estimates are from €15 million to €17 million. Will the Minister of State clarify that the money will be provided for Mountmellick and Portarlington? It has been approved already for Clonaslee, which I welcome.

As regards the issue of insurance, where a successful scheme is in place, there should be no barrier to getting insurance and there should not be escalating insurance costs. The Government needs to engage directly with the insurance companies on that.

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