Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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88. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will outline progress on the Crossmolina flood relief scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48343/22]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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People living and working in Crossmolina are anxiously awaiting final approval for the long-awaited flood relief there. The town was devastated by flood water from the River Deel sweeping through it on 15 December 2015. We are approaching the seventh anniversary of that happening this year and the community in the town faces another worrying winter of unknowns ahead. Will the Minister of State please provide an update on the progress of this scheme?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Dillon for raising this issue again. In October 2020, the Office of Public Works, OPW, submitted the documentation for confirmation for the Crossmolina flood relief scheme to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, under the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, as amended. As part of this process, the Department sought and the OPW provided it with supplementary information in July 2021. The Department advised that a further public consultation would be appropriate, to include this supplementary information, and, as the Deputy will be aware, this public consultation was held between 6 May and 1 July 2022.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has engaged consultants to examine the OPW confirmation documentation and the submissions received under the public consultation process. This work is ongoing. Upon completion of this work, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform will take into account all relevant information when deciding on whether to confirm the scheme in accordance with section 7E(1) of the amended Act.

The OPW remains committed to this scheme and has allocated funding and scheduled staffing resources to progress it subject to ministerial confirmation. The total budget for the scheme is currently estimated at approximately €15 million, with a construction time of four years. Under the OPW minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme, €371,000 has been allocated to Mayo County Council in recent years to help manage the flood risk pending the scheme's delivery. This includes protection measures for up to 100 properties in the town of Crossmolina.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. As I said, this scheme has been ongoing for close to seven years now. While I welcome the update, does the Minister of State agree that urgent reform is needed regarding the planning system concerning these types of projects to avoid similar delays for future developments? What role is the OPW playing in driving reform in this area?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Regarding the process here, it is designed under the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, as amended, which is old but powerful and useful legislation to get infrastructure built on our rivers. In the OPW and in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, our parent Department, we have had some discussion around the assessment and consenting process that could potentially be used. I know this is the cause of frustration and people often wonder why the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is doing the assessment and ask whether it should not be a planning agency. In my estimation, it should be a planning authority undertaking this task and we have had discussions regarding modernising this element. I refer to the assessment process being carried out by a planning authority such as An Bord Pleanála and the consenting authority remaining with a Minister, because this work ultimately becomes a charge on the Exchequer. Work in this sphere is progressing and we would hope that we will be able to bring proposals in this regard shortly.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for that update, but, again, for the people of Crossmolina watching tonight they are still affected by a situation where a judicial review of a scheme in County Cork is jeopardising 116 properties in Crossmolina that have been subjected to repeated flooding. Those people's safety and livelihoods are at risk. I know the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, are doing their level best to get this scheme progressed through the confirmation stage, however, and we would appreciate any further information that can be provided in the coming weeks to get these works progressed.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The OPW and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, to a greater extent, are in an invidious position here because while they are the consenting and assessment authority, they are also the paymasters. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has made ample money available to us in the OPW to carry out the works, so that is not an issue in this context. The issue is that if this endeavour were to fall flat on its face by way of a judicial review, then the whole process would have to start again. The delay in the last 12 months has caused upset for the people of Crossmolina, which is natural because this scheme is very important for those living in the town. If we did not take the advice we got from our Department officials, however, to recommit the scheme to another round of public consultation and then submit that information to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the potential to have a greater number of judicial reviews, above and beyond what we would normally expect anyway, would be enormous and the whole scheme would probably have fallen flat on its face. This is what we were trying to avoid.