Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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In October 2016 I submitted two parliamentary questions on flooding in east Cork, predominately Midleton. The Minister of State is probably well aware that in 2015, many areas in east Cork were totally destroyed. The main road from Cork to Waterford was blocked for several weeks. The area I want to speak about specifically is an area in Midleton, namely, Towns Park, Mill Road, Midleton. I brought to the attention of the Minister of State a catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, study carried out in 2013. It advised on the measures to address flood risk in this area and in Towns Park, Midleton, in particular. The area was subsequently flooded leaving three homes completely uninhabitable.

This means three families cannot live in those houses to this day. I hope the Minister of State will be able to answer my question. The CFRAM study cost a good deal of money. I have read the study on numerous occasions. I provided the Minister of State with two copies of it, one to his pigeon hole and another by hand. Page 16 of the report predicted where the flooding would materialise. The report estimated the volume of water, which reached heights of over 1 m in the area at the time. Pages 26 and 27 of the study proposed preventative recommendations and measures. Recommendations included a landscaped embankment and the associated costs for carrying out the works. The range was between €15,000 and €25,000. That is not a great deal of money in comparison with two two-storey homes and one bungalow.

If possible, can the Minister of State tell me who is responsible for carrying out these works? Who has sole responsibility for ensuring these studies are acted upon? Why were the recommended preventative measures not carried out?

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter today. I want to start by assuring all communities, including those living in Cork, that the Government is actively planning and taking every feasible measure to manage flood risk.

Ireland is more prepared than ever to tackle flood risk from the significant investment being made to tackle flooding. This investment includes 38 major projects completed at a cost of approximately €285 million, resulting in 7,700 properties being protected. A total of 11 flood defence schemes are currently under construction. Five are due to be completed this year protecting a further 2,000 properties. A total of seven schemes are scheduled to commence this year and a further 20 schemes will continue at the design and development stage. A further 6,100 properties in more than 400 locations are being protected from localised flooding completed under the OPW's minor works scheme. A further 200 projects have approved funding. An area of 650,000 acres of agricultural land is protected through the programme of maintenance of 11,500 km of river channels by the OPW. Planning guidelines have prevented building on flood zones since 2009. The CFRAM core strategy for addressing significant flood risks nationally is the catchment flood risk assessment and management programme. A total of 300 areas at potentially significant risk of flooding nationwide, selected as areas for further assessment, have been assessed under the programme, the purpose of which is to implement the EU floods directive and national flood policy. For the purposes of the national CFRAM programme, the country has been divided into six regional study areas, including the south-western and Shannon CFRAM study areas, including the two AFAs, Milford and Charleville, which are within the Shannon CFRAM. There is a total of 35 AFAs in Cork city and county.

The CFRAM programme is the largest flood risk management planning programme ever undertaken by the State. To date, the CFRAM programme has included detailed modelling and mapping in each of the 300 AFAs, including surveying and modelling of 6,700 kms of channels; the publication in 2015 of approximately 13,000 individual flood maps for public consultation; and over 400 public consultation days held in the AFAs throughout the CFRAM programme at which the CFRAM teams met and consulted with local representatives, residents, business owners and community groups at key stages on the flood maps and potential solutions. It has now identified feasible flood relief measures to provide protection to 95% of flood risk properties in the 300 CFRAM areas. The details are set out in 29 draft flood risk management plans which I have published since July 2016 for public consultation, which is now complete.

The national CFRAM programme is being undertaken by the OPW in partnership with its consultants, local authorities and other stakeholders. Cork County Council has been actively involved and has fully participated in progress groups and advisory groups for the CFRAM study. The OPW has also on two occasions made presentations to elected councillors on the draft flood risk management plans, one at the beginning of the study and most recently on 16 September 2016. The current position on the CFRAM study is that the draft flood risk management plans are now being finalised, taking into account the important and constructive submissions made through the public consultation held in 2016. When this process, scheduled for spring 2017, is completed, a prioritised list off feasible measures, both structural and non-structural, will be drawn up to address flood risk in an environmentally sustainable and cost-effective way. The plans will then be submitted for approval to the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform and subsequently for adoption by the local authorities.

In the Cork area, while the Government is committed to prioritising future planned investment by the benefits that accrue, it has to be acknowledged that Cork has already benefitted and continues to benefit from significant investment. Only a few weeks ago I launched the public exhibition of the planned Cork city scheme. This is the largest flood defence scheme ever constructed in this country. The major capital investment commitment, which the Cork city flood relief scheme represents, is part of the significant capital funding envelope of €430 million which has been allocated to the OPW to spend between 2016 and 2021. The Cork city scheme will add to the very significant programme of investment in flood relief in Cork. Two further schemes are under way in Bandon and Skibbereen and six further schemes are planned for Blackpool, Glanmire, Douglas-Togher, Clonakilty, Ballymakeera and Midleton.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I will hold the Minister of State there. His time is up.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I need 30 seconds.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State will have two more minutes to respond.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I will be brief. I thank the Minister of State. I have developed a bit of a knack of speed and power reading so I will get to it straight away. The answer is very welcome and I welcome these major projects. I also welcome the minor ones. In the conclusion of the Minister of State's written reply, he says in the last line: "In the interim I am satisfied that the identified and assessed flood risk in Cork is being appropriately addressed." However, it could not be addressed if we are doing CFRAM studies that are not being acted on. It goes back to my question. This study, which came out in 2013 and was sanctioned by Cork County Council, tells us exactly where the flooding was going to happen and what the preventative measures were but nothing was done. This is only one particular study and there are a number of studies out there. We have three families that have not been in their homes since 2015. There have been no preventative measures. It is grand telling us what will happen, how to prevent it and getting us the plan and telling us the cost but it is then shelved. If that will happen with this one, I feel something else will happen. I know it is not directly the fault of the Minister of State but I need to get answers for these people because it is very unfair and unjust that this has been sitting on somebody's shelf after so much money was spent saying exactly what happened and what will happen. It happened and three families are now homeless.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise to the Minister of State for interrupting his flow. I guarantee him two minutes now without interruption.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Deputy read out my last line. In the interim, I am satisfied that the identified and assessed flood risk in Cork is being appropriately addressed. CFRAM is a process that has been going on for a number of years. When there were reports prepared, they had to be tested and modelled and maps had to be drawn. The answer I have given the Deputy sets out that the CFRAM process is now coming to an end. When that process has been completed, 300 projects will be ready to start. They will be taken in a prioritised order based on a lot of different criteria. It is a major structural plan for flood relief for the next ten years. What has been done is unprecedented. What has been done has taken about two years off the planning process of any of these projects. Every project I have seen that has been done in the past has taken six to seven years to bring from inception to construction. We will now be short-circuiting that. Of course, in the meantime, people have flooded. We will not get to everybody in the same day. If I was to follow the Deputy's logic, as soon as a report becomes available, we would jump in and do something. I have great sympathy for people who flooded. They flooded all over the country. It is as a result of the volume of rainfall we get. I must assure people in the public that flooding is being dealt with in a coherent way at long last. We have a whole-of-Government approach to this and we will be dealing with each of the areas once they are approved by the Minister.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response and thank the Deputy for his question.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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May I respond to that? I have one tiny response to that.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I will allow the Deputy 30 seconds. I am not supposed to let him in.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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It is a two-year period. This report was in 2013. It is 2017 now and still nothing has been done and those houses are still lying idle. I do not mean to be disrespectful to the Minister of State. I will give him the report if he wants it. It might be a bit of a help for the next one.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I reject the assertion that nothing has been done.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Nothing has been done on this report.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Deputy has had his say. I want to put on record that I reject that. Work has been done in order to prepare projects to go to construction. A lot of work has been done on them and will continue to be done right up until spring when they will be published.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I totally accept that but not on this report.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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There will be no further debate. I was generous to even let the Deputy in.