John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted the Ceann Comhairle chose this issue and thank him for doing so. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, for being here. The Topical Issue concerns flood relief, particularly on the south Kilkenny bank of the River Suir. My part of the world is blessed with many things, including many rivers, which have many beneficial effects in terms of tourism and scenery, but one of the problems with major rivers that has affected all parts of the country in the last few years is flooding. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, is still relatively new to his position and I wish him well in it. There is an ambitious programme that is partly under way at present and that I hope will get fully under way over the next few months in terms of relieving flooding across the country. In my own part of the world, Inistioge, Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh were badly affected by the flooding earlier this year. They are part of the Department's CFRAM scheme, which will see progress.

Today, I raise the issues of two small Suir tributaries in south Kilkenny, namely, the Pill River in Pilltown, from where it gets its name, and Portnascully Pill in Mooncoin, which are very substantial local tributaries and cause a significant degree of flooding, not just to farmland but also to houses and property. In the case of both rivers in the most recent flooding events, a number of families had to leave their homes, some for the very first time. I suppose it is symptomatic of a wider problem across the country that many of our smaller rivers and streams are overgrown and have not seen any measures to alleviate flooding for many years. I know that the situation is complicated and complex in that there may be European directives and national law which limit the amount of work in some cases that can be carried out.

The problem with these two rivers is that the local authority in Kilkenny has submitted plans and has not received, as I understand it, any word yet from the OPW. I hope that in his response, the Minister of State might have at least some timeframe. I have always found that people are not unrealistic, in particular rural people affected by flooding, and they know these things take time. However, they expect they will be given an indication as to when some flood relief measures may be put into place. I hope the Minister of State will have at least a timeframe for these two communities in south Kilkenny which have suffered great distress in the last number of serious flooding events, with people forced to leave their homes, as I said already.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I am grateful to the Deputy for raising this question, which gives me an opportunity to address the House on the subject.

The Office of Public Works has been working in close co-operation with Kilkenny County Council in recent years to assist the council in developing an application for funding assistance under the OPW's minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme to deal with the flooding problems in the areas mentioned by the Deputy. Earlier applications for funding under the scheme lacked sufficient information to allow a decision to be taken on them. Discussions have taken place between the OPW regional engineering staff and their counterparts in the council over the period to clarify certain important matters relating to the flooding problem and its impact on properties and lands in the affected area.

In May 2016, Kilkenny County Council submitted an application for funding under the minor works scheme to undertake studies in two locations. The first of these was for Fanningstown-Owning and the second one was for Knockhouse to Portnascully via Dungooly.

I am informed by my officials that consideration of the application is now nearing finalisation and that a letter will issue to the council in the coming days indicating funding approval of €18,000 in total for the projects in question.

A total of 11 projects have been approved for County Kilkenny since the minor works scheme was introduced in 2009 with total funding approval of almost €1.1 million. This scheme is of great benefit and assistance to local authorities in addressing small-scale flooding issues by providing the necessary funding to carry out the required studies and works to alleviate such issues within their administrative areas.

The scheme has been very successful to date, with more than 560 projects being approved to the value of approximately €37 million, which has helped provide flood protection to over 5,000 properties. I have very recently written to every local authority encouraging them to consider and review the possibilities within their areas for continued and, where possible, increased use of the scheme.

The Deputy will also be aware of the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, programme, which lies at the core of the assessment of flood risk and long-term planning of flood risk management measures throughout the country. When each of the flood risk management plans being produced under the CFRAM programme, currently at consultation stage, are finalised, specific flood risk management measures will be identified and prioritised and will form the basis for a long-term investment programme for flood risk management in Ireland. As many of these measures will be small scale and will fall within the financial threshold of the minor works scheme, each local authority will play its part in the implementation of the measures in the context of the scheme.

The Suir CFRAM plan, which covers these areas, will be placed on public consultation next week when members of the public and elected representatives will have an opportunity to make submissions. There are no measures proposed in the plan for the Mooncoin area but there are proposals for the Pilltown area to deal with flooding problems there.

The Government has committed to increasing the budget allocation for capital flood relief activities to €430 million over the period 2016-2021 and I am confident its strategy to manage flood risk will better prepare Ireland to manage the threat of flooding into the future.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I call Deputy John Paul Phelan, who has two minutes.

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I just need one minute to thank the Minister of State for being present. It is amazing the number of times in my time in both Houses that Ministers - I suppose, naturally - could not be present to answer Topical Issues, which they are now called. They used to be called Adjournment matters when the Acting Chairman was in his heyday, although his heyday still has some time to go.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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It is still his heyday.

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I say sincerely that this is very good news and I am sure there will be more contact between me, my office, the council and the OPW before these measures are carried out. The Kilkenny county song is "The Rose of Mooncoin", and there is a line in it about the banks of the Suir that flows down by Mooncoin. If and when these works are delivered-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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It comes through Tipperary too.

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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Go on, Mattie.

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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-----we will look forward to welcoming the Minister of State to the banks of the Suir that flows down by Pilltown and Mooncoin sometime soon.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy for that. I will get somebody to sing "Galway Bay" because I do not have-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Tiobraid Árainn abú.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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-----the qualities to do that but I thank him for his kind words.