Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter for debate on the Adjournment. The Minister will recall that in 2006 and 2007 there was very serious flooding in south Mayo. A number of houses were flooded, as was shown on RTE at the time. It was a terrible flood, particularly in the Roundfort-Hollymount area.

Funding was provided last year but there was a major dispute about a report from the Office of Public Works, OPW, for the national parks and wildlife service. This has been going on for 12 months. Yesterday, I received a reply to a parliamentary question stating that the OPW report has been completed and has gone to the national parks and wildlife service. I will not go over the top, but the family in question contacted me this week because it had to be evacuated from its home again three years on. Once was enough. Funding is in place but, because of disputes between two State agencies, the family's house has been destroyed again. The Minister of State might not be able to confirm something for me now, but I hope he will over the next number of days, namely, whether the OPW will start the work early in the new year. I tabled a question to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government regarding the NPWS to determine whether the latter is satisfied.

Mayo County Council, the OPW and the NPWS are responsible for the home's flooding. I met the NPWS in July and I asked it and the OPW, no matter the problems, to sit down and try to get the report done and the money spent before the winter season. We waited and waited and I tabled question after question. Lo and behold, nothing could be done until the house was flooded a second time. Only then could everyone get together and get the report done. I hold both agencies responsible for flooding the home. If they had done what they were supposed to do, we would not have had this problem.

Mayo County Council, the OPW and the NPWS told us for 15 years that the problem in Kilmaine could not be resolved. Locals told them how to resolve it and a small amount of money got the job done. This week, I was told by telephone that, despite all of the rain and flooding, not a bit of water had entered those people's lands or homes.

The €200,000 was allocated by the Minister of State's Department. I want it spent and the families protected. If the money had been spent and they got flooded again, at least the Minister of State, his Department and the council would have tried. The money was available, but two agencies instead fought over snipes and birds and showed no interest in families' homes. I want the problem to be resolved. I want the Minister of State to confirm in the House that he will take on this case personally, check it out and tell me that the work will start in the new year. The NPWS will be happy with the Department's report.

Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)
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Locations in a number of counties have been affected by serious flooding in recent weeks due to unprecedented rainfall. The impact on communities has been severe. Areas of south County Mayo, including Roundfort-Hollymount, also suffered badly from flooding in 2006. I thank the Deputy for giving me an opportunity to discuss in the House the serious flooding in the Roundfort-Hollymount area in the past week.

The flooding, which has affected a house, agricultural land and the Hollymount-Tuam road, is a complex issue to deal with due to the nature of the terrain in the area. A substantial part of the affected lands contains a number of interlinked turloughs. These features are protected under the provisions of the EU habitats directive. Any proposals for flood mitigation works or any works that would impact on the turloughs must have the consent of the NPWS of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Following the flooding in late 2006, the OPW drew up proposals to address the problem in Roundfort-Hollymount. These involved extending the OPW's dredging operations into a channel in the area. Although being a continuation of a channel forming part of the Corrib-Mask-Robe arterial drainage scheme, which is maintained by the OPW, it was not part of that scheme. The work would be carried out under the provisions of the Arterial Drainage Act 1945.

These proposals were distributed to landowners in the area at a meeting arranged by the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, in February 2008. Mayo County Council was also consulted. The complexity of the problem was recognised, including the view at the time of the need to balance mitigation measures with environmental constraints regarding water levels in the turloughs that would limit the extent of protection from flooding that could be provided.

As is required, the OPW commissioned an ecological study regarding the environmental impacts of the proposals in March 2008. The report of the outcome of this study was submitted to the NPWS in April 2008 for consent to proceed with the works. The NPWS raised a number of issues and requirements. It wanted a more detailed cost benefit analysis of the properties affected, an assessment of the impact on turloughs in the area using specified EU methodologies, a comprehensive examination of alternative solutions to addressing the problem, consultations with experts in turlough systems and an analysis of the frequency of the flooding.

To address these concerns, the OPW extended the scope of the initial ecological study in May 2008. The OPW also commissioned Dr. Roger Goodwillie, who is recognised as one of the foremost experts in the area of turloughs in Ireland, to examine the proposals. Due to the complexity of the problem, the completion and synthesis of these studies took somewhat longer than anticipated. As a result of the additional ecological studies, the OPW modified the original proposals for the works. The modified proposals were submitted to the NPWS on 3 November 2009. If the proposals meet with its approval, it would be the intention of the OPW to undertake the work as part of its 2010 works programme.

As in the case of many of the OPW's proposals to carry out works, unexpected issues arise that are outside the direct control of the office. Some of these issues relate to sensitive matters of an environmental or archaeological nature that must, under EU directives, be assessed by the appropriate authorities before works can proceed. In the Roundfort-Hollymount situation, the OPW had no alternative but to refer the issues that arose to the NPWS.

I assure the Deputy that the OPW will move ahead as quickly as possible with the works when they have been approved by that body. Progress in this regard would be dependent on water levels in the river and environmental windows available for such works, which would have a significant impact on when the works could commence. In the circumstances, it is unlikely that any substantive work will be done before next spring.

In light of recent severe flooding over large parts of the country, a fundamental reappraisal needs to be undertaken of the appropriate balance between protecting people, homes and livelihoods and other important environmental considerations relating to habitats, wild life, rare plants, turloughs and other natural features. While I am sure the different interests and priorities can be reconciled, I am firmly of the opinion that proper weight must be given to flood protection where people are concerned.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. I will contact the Minister sitting beside him, Deputy Gormley, in the next few weeks. The matter has gone to his Department and I want it to deal with the issue.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this important item on the Adjournment. In recent weeks, much media attention and Government time was taken up by the difficult situations that the latter needed to deal with in the major crisis areas of Galway, Clare, Limerick, the west and even parts of my constituency. Lost in all of this were the many small projects with which local councils had difficulties, namely, flooding on small country roads. I am referring to a small amount of attention in terms of laying a pipe, dredging or patching. The Minister of State well knows what I have in mind. At places like Lagganstown, Golden, Knockavilla, Dualla and Ardfinnan in the Care rural area, the Clonmel rural area, Fethard, Carrick-on-Suir and west Tipperary, several roads were blocked by ponds. Cars found the going difficult because of the resting water. Urgent action is required. I visited the sites with council engineers. I have been in contact with other engineers. The answer I get each time from members and staff of South Tipperary County Council is that the job needs to be done.

I ask the Minister of State and his Government colleagues, including the Minister for Transport, to make funding available for such schemes. I suggest that a block grant of some description could be provided. I am sure money can be found in some Department to help these people. As it is early December, we have a long winter ahead of us. Local authorities have the manpower to do these small jobs but they have no money. I ask the Government to make an allocation to every local authority in the country. There is a list in every local authority. I wish to be helpful by saying that the full co-operation of Members is not in doubt. The Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, has the ear of the Minister, Deputy Gormley. He has seen at first hand the problems I have mentioned which need to be dealt with. I respectfully ask the Minister of State to ensure funding is made available to the local authorities in question. He might not be able to respond to that request tonight but he can do so in the weeks ahead.

Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Tom Hayes for raising this matter, which relates to the constituency we share. I visited Lagganstown, which was mentioned by the Deputy, last Saturday. I express my sympathy to those who have been affected by the recent flooding in many parts of the country, including County Tipperary.

In September 2004, the Government confirmed that the Office of Public Works is the State's lead agency in dealing with flooding. It is tasked with delivering an integrated and multifaceted programme that is aimed at mitigating future flood risk and impact. The repair and improvement of regional and local roads following flooding is a matter for the relevant local authority, to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants paid by the Department of Transport. The initial selection of works to be funded from such grants is also a matter for each local authority. The funding of national roads is a matter for the National Roads Authority. When grants for regional and local roads are allocated at the beginning of each year. The Department of Transport does not hold back a reserve allocation at central level to deal with weather contingencies as such an arrangement would involve a reduction in the allocations that are made. Instead, the allocation made to local authorities is inclusive of the weather risk factor and local authorities are expressly advised to set aside contingency sums from their overall regional and local roads resources to finance necessary weather related works. This stipulation is clearly set out in the circular letter that is sent with the yearly road grant allocations.

Grants totalling €447.477 million were allocated to local authorities for works on regional and local roads in 2009. This allocation included a discretionary maintenance grant of €29.56 million and a discretionary improvement grant of €12.5 million. These moneys are available at the discretion of county councils to fund contingency works arising from weather conditions. The Department of Transport is prepared to consider sympathetically any request from local authorities to adjust their multi-annual restoration programmes or revise their specific grant applications to prioritise work necessitated by severe weather conditions. Local authorities have been allocated a total of €144.951 million in restoration improvement grants and €85 million in restoration maintenance grants in 2009. Local authorities are continuing to assess the extent of flood damage in their regions. It will be some time before they can quantify the damage sustained to regional and local road networks. More time will pass before repair works can be costed.

Deputy Tom Hayes will appreciate that neither I nor the Minister for Transport can indicate at this time what funding might be needed or available to address damage caused to the regional and local road network. Officials in the Department of Transport are maintaining contact with local authorities affected by flooding. The current difficulties faced by those authorities are being monitored and will be taken into account in the 2010 regional and local road grant allocations to the extent that resources will allow. As a Deputy who shares the Tipperary South constituency with Deputy Hayes, I am glad that many road maintenance improvements that have been undertaken by South Tipperary County Council in 2009, many of them on roads between his house and mine. I am certain the council will give priority, within the funds available, to the repair of road structures that were damaged by recent heavy rains and flooding in certain parts of the county.