Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 6: To ask the Minister for the Environment; Community and Local Government if he will provide funds to local authorities to update water infrastructure to deal with persistent flooding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37693/11]

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for the Environment; Community and Local Government if he will provide funds to local authorities to update water infrastructure to deal with persistent flooding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37727/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take questions Nos. 6 and 15 together.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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These are similar to the questions we have just dealt with. Do they take the same reply?

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Should we move to another one?

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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No. They are on the Order Paper.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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They take the same reply.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I will briefly summarise what I just stated.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister could elaborate on it.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I have elaborated a good deal already. As I stated in reply to Question No. 5 on today's Order Paper, measures to alleviate flooding are the responsibility of the Office of Public Works. I must repeat the answer. The OPW is the lead agency for flood risk management and it funds a capital and maintenance programme for major and minor flood works. The Deputy should ensure that his local authority has made representations and a submission to the Office of Public Works, which has the money to deal with the issues to which he has referred. I realise it will never be enough nationally but €45 million in the current climate is a substantial amount of money to be allocated for 2012.

My Department in partnership with the OPW published guidelines for the planning authorities to ensure some of the mistakes to which Deputy Boyd Barrett correctly adverted will not take place again in respect of flood risk management. These guidelines are being implemented as part of the planning applications process by An Bord Pleanála and in development plans.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I welcome the fact the Minister stated he will examine the cases of people without insurance who have been refused assistance under the €10 million scheme. I would appreciate if the Minister follows through on this and I will send on to him the details. I appeal for some joined-up thinking rather than having the Office of Public Works here, a section of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government there and the local authorities elsewhere. This has been a recurring crisis. If it were a once-off matter I could understand the Minister's response. Every time the rain comes down heavily people in these flood black spots begin to quake in their boots with fear because of the possible consequences. There have been cases of flood waters mixed with sewage swilling through people's houses resulting in appalling damage but everyone is passing the buck.

If we could move heaven and earth to provide bank guarantee schemes to cover the banks, could we not have some interdepartmental co-operation, pooling of resources and joined-up thinking to resolve the various issues arising for those affected by flooding? For example, the local authorities claim that their responsibility is limited to clearing out blocked streams if they are in public ownership but that they have no responsibility if they are in private ownership. That is a nonsense. They have a responsibility to ensure there is no flooding. I put it to the Minister that local authorities have responsibilities to their tenants but they are not discharging them and where people's houses are damaged they are refusing to carry out repairs.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy, this is Question Time. Will you please put the questions to the Minister?

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Will the Minister put heads together with the Office of Public Works, local authorities and his political allies? At a meeting on this issue on Monday his Fine Gael and Labour Party colleagues in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council refused to support a motion calling for action.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy, this is Question Time. Will you please put some questions? Other Deputies are waiting for answers to questions.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Will the Minister put heads together from the various agencies and bodies to provide a comprehensive solution and the resources necessary to deal with the victims of repeat flooding? The State has a responsibility for it.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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There is a Government task force on emergency planning under which all Departments come together to deal with emergency responses. It performed this work in October after the recent flooding. There is already joined-up thinking in place. Deputy Boyd Barrett should acknowledge that those with responsibility must take responsibility and must perform the roles they have been given. I am referring to the local authorities and the Office of Public Works. There is no difficulty with this and it does not require an ability to understand Einstein's theory to realise that a local authority with a democratic mandate should identify the areas that have a particular problem and that are subject to flooding on a regular basis. It is for them to make a submission, perhaps they have done so but I am unsure. They should prioritise their submissions to the OPW if they want capital works to be carried out. In the meantime, people undergoing hardship have access to the €10 million that the Government has provided in difficult times.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Some do not have access to it.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I have already dealt with that. The Deputy should try to be a little generous.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Fair enough. What about the insurance?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Ellis has a question.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I cannot do anything about it but I will deal with the issues raised by Deputy Boyd Barrett in regard to those with no insurance.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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With regard to what the Minister-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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There is a one minute limit on each supplementary question according to Standing Orders.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I realise that and it is my second time on this question.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am saying there is a one minute limit.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I understand that and I wish to ask-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Put your questions within one minute. These are not statements.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I will do my best. The Minister has outlined that the Office of Public Works has the responsibility in this case and that there is a €45 million rolling fund in place. There has been a significant amount of flooding in my area and throughout the country. Dublin City Council is putting together a list of all the affected areas. Many areas are those where repeated flooding has taken place and this is the main problem that must be addressed. Not only must we address the problem-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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A question please, Deputy.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Many people will be unable to get insurance in future. Some were not insured during the previous flooding some years ago. If there is a request for funding to the Office of Public Works which will end up, in turn, on the Minister's desk, will he be favourably disposed to consider helping if extra funding is needed to address the infrastructural problems in various areas, especially in Dublin City Council?

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I would very much like to be able to inform Deputy Ellis that I have a magic wand to provide all of the resources needed to deal with all the problems of the country as they relate to my Department, but I do not. We are in a difficult financial situation and there is only a limited amount of money. It is up to the local authorities to prioritise their projects and to submit them to the OPW.