David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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84. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount of funding received by each local authority for flood relief schemes in each of the years 2018 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56322/22]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Flood relief schemes are hugely important. I welcome the fact that the Government has made a large amount of money available for such schemes in recent times. How much has been made available in recent years? What is the current situation? Are their plans to increase funding?

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. I have set out in tabular form in the following link the detail on the amount of funding approved for each local authority under the OPW minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme in each of the years 2018 to 2021 and to date in 2022.

As the Deputy will be aware, the purpose of the scheme is to provide funding to local authorities to undertake minor flood mitigation works or studies to address localised fluvial flooding and coastal protection problems within their administrative areas. The scheme generally applies where a solution can be readily identified and achieved in a short timeframe. The works to be funded are carried out under local authority powers and ongoing maintenance of the completed works is the responsibility of the local authority.

Under the scheme, the OPW reviews all applications to ensure the proposed works are technically, environmentally and economically feasible. The scheme applies to all eligible projects with an estimated cost of up to €750,000 and 90% of the overall costs for approved projects are paid by my office.

Since the scheme was established in 2009, 7,600 properties have been protected through 643 minor works projects at a cost to the end of 2021 of €43.4 million. Approved works typically include the provision of flood barriers, remedial works to embankments, installation of trash screens, works to culverts, drainage and channel widening. Since 2018, funding of €19.4 million was approved by the OPW for 212 individual projects across 27 local authorities. Of these, the highest funding approval, €2.2 million, was granted to Galway County Council. Cork County Council was allocated €2 million, Kerry County Council, €2 million, and Fingal County Council, €1.4 million.

Over this time, five of the 212 applications from local authorities were for projects of over €500,000 each, with 86% of all applications estimated to cost less than €150,000.

During that same period the amount of funding drawdown by local authorities for approved flood projects was €9.6 million. The commencement and progression of any works for which funding is approved is a matter for each local authority concerned. Often drawdown will take up to five years after approval.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I would be concerned about delays in drawdown and maybe money being lost or taken back by the OPW. The Minister of State might tell me what the situation is with that. Does the OPW keep tabs on the local authorities to put pressure on them to do the work in a timely fashion? Obviously, these works would not be approved unless they were needed. If they are not done in a timely fashion then people are going to suffer.

I am sure the Minister of State will be interested in my next question about sea-level rise himself. We know from the recent conference in Egypt that sea levels are rising at an alarming rate. I have raised this before. In my own area in Pilmore near Youghal we see the impact of that. Do these schemes encompass the rate of sea level rise and the damage that it can do to property, livelihoods, to roads and houses and so on? Are there any plans to expand the scheme to take that into account?

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The Deputy is correct about drawdown. Much of the funds are not drawn down. Roughly half the funds approved have actually been drawn down during the five-year period we were looking at. The budget itself is not entirely applied for. There is always much more money in the budget than is applied for by the local authorities. I would encourage the Deputy to ask his local authority to apply for the funding for minor works schemes and then to make sure that it does draw it down.

There must be a role for county councillors in local authorities to pursue their council executive over these matters to, first, request that they ask for money and then to make sure that they draw it down and make sure that they spend it. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, asked me to convey to the Deputy that he is planning to visit Midleton in coming weeks.

Of course, sea level rises are something that affect not only the Deputy's constituency but also my own. In Dún Laoghaire the railway line runs along the seafront and this is becoming a cost for Irish Rail as well as for the country as a whole and everyone who happens to live near the coast, which is an increasing number.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Would the Minister of State agree that his last point on sea level rises is something that we really need to get our act together on? If reports are true, we face a very serious impact on property and housing, farmland, railway lines and so on across the country. I get the feeling we are not treating this with the urgency that we should as a Government, as a State or as a nation but it is coming if all the scientists are correct.

Would the Minister of State agree that perhaps the local authorities do not have the capacity to draw down the funding he is talking about? It is very serious if they are not drawing down the amounts which he mentioned because these schemes are needed. If money is being handed back because local authorities do not have the capacity, is it time for the Government to have a conversation with local authorities to see if they need more help, such as more personnel to get this work done in time?

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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On the approach to sea level rises all around the country and its effect on critical infrastructure, housing and so on, the Climate Action Plan will continue to address that. There will be specific actions relating to flooding. People will pay particular attention to that in the current environment.

On whether the local authorities need extra capacity, I know the OPW will act in an advisory capacity to anybody who has been allocated money. If local authorities feel they do not have the capacity to draw it down they should write to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan and let him know, if that is what the problem is. Really, many of these are small projects of under €0.5 million. They are the kinds of projects that local authorities are well capable of delivering if they put their minds to it. There is a role for county councillors to put pressure on their own local authorities to actually carry out the work.