Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I welcome this opportunity to address the House and report on the recent major flood events that have affected the River Shannon area in a devastating way. I begin by extending my sincerest sympathy to all the individuals and families who have been affected by the floods and who are continuing to suffer from them and their aftermath. I have taken the opportunity in the past two weeks to visit the flood areas, including Limerick, villages in County Clare along the River Shannon, Athlone, Carrick-on-Shannon and Leitrim and adjacent areas in north and south Roscommon. On one of these occasions Senator McFadden joined me, with other public representatives. I witnessed the level of devastation and spoke to people whose homes, businesses and farms had been badly damaged by the floods. I appreciate that sympathy is of limited value to a family who have been made homeless, the owner of a business now lying under several feet of water or the farmers now operating in very difficult conditions. However, we have a plan for the future with which I will deal later.

I acknowledge the tremendous work done on the ground by the emergency services and other State agencies. Also, I make a special mention and acknowledge the fantastic co-operation and help delivered within communities by volunteers and neighbours.

In recognition of the devastation caused for people in many areas of the country by the recent flooding, the Government has allocated an initial sum of €10 million to fund a humanitarian assistance scheme which is being administered by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive on behalf of the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

The aim of the scheme is to provide financial support to people who have suffered flood damage to their homes through hardship alleviation as opposed to full compensation. As on previous occasions, commercial or business losses will not be covered by the scheme nor will losses which are covered by household insurance. The county enterprise boards are, however, collating information on damages suffered by businesses for the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The community welfare service has already provided emergency financial and other assistance to households affected by the flooding to cover items such as clothing, food, bedding, heating, hire of dehumidifiers and emergency accommodation needs. As the flood waters abate and people assess the full extent of the damage to their homes, qualified households can claim for essential household items such as carpets, flooring, furniture and white goods. The Government has also agreed to a targeted fodder aid scheme and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has announced that €2 million is being allocated for this purpose. This is in addition to the wider humanitarian aid scheme.

In recent weeks, the River Shannon reached its highest level since the OPW began continuous recording of water levels in the late 1940s. The current flow in the Shannon is in excess of the 100 year flood event, which is the standard level of protection afforded by modern flood defence. The flood has caused hundreds of families, homes, businesses and farms to suffer hardships, threats to health and significant material and financial losses. It is also important to note the devastating impacts that the recent floods have on potable water supplies, the environment, terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna, wildlife habitats and our archaeological heritage.

The River Shannon is 340 km in length and its catchment area of 15,000 sq. km. accounts for almost 20% of the area of the country. It is one of the main natural resources of Ireland as well as a cause of innumerable and repeated problems. The flooding of the river and its catchment area has been the subject of intensive investigations over the past 60 years and other investigations which date back to 1863. I was once given a book which provided economic, social and statistical accounts of Ireland in 1870. It was clear from reading it that flooding along the Shannon was an even greater problem at that time.

The Rydell report of 1956 was a significant and comprehensive study of the Shannon and its catchment area undertaken following the flooding of 1954. The report gave an overview of the flooding problems and possible mitigation options. It also considered related issues such as navigation, power generation and land use. It is of interest that the options put forward by Rydell are as valid today as they were in 1954. In 1957, the OPW and the ESB were jointly appointed to carry out further preliminary investigations on the Rydell report's options for river diversion, channel improvements and lake storage. These investigations, the results of which were published in 1961, concluded that some of the Rydell recommendations were viable and cost-effective, whereas others were neither. None of the Rydell major recommendations was implemented.

The Houses of the Oireachtas report of 2000 concluded that the causes of frequent flooding of the Shannon were mainly due to natural causes such as the flat gradient of the river channel, inadequacy of depth and width in critical areas and increases in rainfall and siltation. This report also recorded that, with the exception of minor activity such as the installation of river and rainfall recording devices, the main recommendations of the Rydell report had not been implemented.

The House of the Oireachtas report of 2002 had as its objective the formulation of proposals on the optimum structure or structures to manage the Shannon and its tributaries. To that end, the report was mainly concerned with the organisational arrangements for the effective management of the Shannon catchment rather than a blueprint for the Shannon river basin, which was considered under the Oireachtas report of 2000. The 2002 report noted that a number of groups at regional level and at least 12 Departments and Government organisations at national level had some function or responsibility for the Shannon basin. It is worth noting that a consensus existed among these groups that improvements in the management of the Shannon basin were needed but there was no agreement on whether a new organisation should be set up to achieve this end.

The 2002 report attempted to establish how effectively the present organisational arrangements enabled the Shannon catchment to be managed and what might best be done to improve the process. It also identified the shortcomings and weaknesses of the present arrangements in dealing with management of flooding and its consequences. The main merits attributed to the present arrangements for the management of the Shannon catchment were: functional responsibility is clearly fixed in law and each organisation has a precise remit, knows exactly what is required to do and has clearly established priorities; and communication and collaboration between the various agencies take place using well established mechanisms, such as committees, working groups and partnerships. However, within these arrangements there is a lack of co-ordination, or of common purpose, among the organisations involved. There was, for example, no organisation or agency with a statutory duty to take initiatives to prevent and reduce the incidence of flooding or to alleviate its consequences. Co-ordination of planning among organisations with diverse responsibilities and remits has proved extremely difficult to achieve and where difficulties arise no mechanisms exist to resolve them.

The need for a proactive approach to the management of flood risk was recognised by the report of the flood policy review group. The strategy of the OPW for the management of flood risks is founded on that report, which was approved by the Government in September 2004. This strategy gives us a more productive role and is being implemented through a range of additional work programmes, all of which are now under way. These programmes will complement the existing work of the OPW in regard to capital flood relief schemes and arterial drainage maintenance.

Our main work programme is the catchment flood risk management and assessment, CFRAM, programme. This programme has commenced in pilot form on the River Lee and the objective is to complete the programme nationally to meet the requirements of the EU floods directive. The OPW is responsible for the transposition of the EU floods directive into national law, which will be completed before the end of the year and in advance of the majority of EU member states. When the floods directive is transposed into national law, the OPW will be nominated as the competent authority with overall responsibility for all matters in relation to the assessment and management of flood risk in the State. This will place the OPW in the unique position of co-ordinating all the groups involved with flood or related work in a focused, efficient and effective manner.

Flood risk management by its very nature involves the resolution of complex engineering and technical issues which at times may impact on the remits of other organisations. Significant environmental issues and concerns also arise, and several Government and non-governmental organisations are involved. It is necessary therefore to engage in a wide consultation with relevant organisations and the general public when undertaking the CFRAM. The OPW is committed to engaging in comprehensive consultative processes in all situations where its work programmes are likely to affect the remits of other organisations.

Currently, a comprehensive management programme for the River Shannon is being addressed under several headings. To facilitate planning for the management of future flood risk, the OPW has developed a catchment flood risk assessment and management programme. This programme underpins the essentials of the assessment of flood risk and the long-term planning of the flood risk management measures for catchment areas throughout the country and includes capital structural and non-structural measures. The CFRAM programme is being delivered through the CFRAM studies, which are comprehensive catchment based investigations of areas of potential significant flood risk. These studies, which are required by the national flood policy and the EU floods directive, are designed to focus on and identify areas at risk from flood events for a range of severity and to produce a prioritised plan of measures and actions for dealing with areas where the risk is significant. As part of the process, areas of potentially significant flood risk will be captured on flood maps and this data will inform flood risk management measures. The OPW, in partnership with Cork city and county councils initiated a major pilot catchment flood risk assessment and management study of the Lee catchment in 2006, which is now nearing completion

The OPW is also undertaking pilot studies in respect of the rivers Dodder and Suir and the Fingal-East Meath area. More localised plans have already been completed for Portarlington and Tullamore, and significant information is available for the river Tolka in Dublin. As the lead agency for flood risk management, the OPW has already begun the process of procuring a flood risk assessment and management study for the remaining catchments, including the Shannon. As this type of study involves a range of complexities it is important that a pilot study is completed and lessons about the process are learned before rolling out the national programme.

I anticipate that the Shannon flood risk assessment and management study will commence in mid-2010. In the case of the Shannon, all major stakeholders, including the relevant local authorities, the ESB, Waterways Ireland, environmental groups and the public, will be consulted during this assessment process and will be encouraged to make an input to its recommendations. The study will consider all options for dealing with areas of significant flood risk.

Pending completion of the study for the Shannon catchment, the OPW, through the minor works scheme, will work with the relevant local authorities to identify areas that may benefit from interim localised mitigation measures. As a word of caution, it should be noted that effective maintenance of river course channels can only contribute to the moderation of the impact of flood events. Further, engineering opinion concludes that the maintenance, such as dredging, of river channels alone and without other remedial interventions is not sufficient to protect against flood events of the extent and magnitude of those witnessed in recent weeks.

The planning and development process is critical to avoid creation of further flood risk. The OPW, with the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, developed the Guidelines on the management of Flood Risk in Planning and Development which I and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley launched jointly earlier this week.

Development in flood plains should be avoided, where possible. Some previous developments in flood plains and the reduction of open ground for water absorption, has added to the problems we face. Future development should mitigate rather than increase existing flood risk. I recently saw an interesting development in Carrick-on-Shannon in which a former Member of this and the other House was involved. Several large retail stores, such as Woodies and Tesco, were built on stilts over the flood plain. During the flooding which had affected that area quite badly the flood plain was able to take the rising waters which remained well below the buildings. That seemed quite an ingenious solution to using a strategic location. It costs much more than building directly on the flood plain but most towns and villages were built near or round rivers. The distinction between that and other developments was that this development explicitly took account of the flood risk and adopted a measure that did not interfere with the operation of flood plains.

The OPW has obtained aerial photographic records of the flood extents for this flood event and intends when this is processed to put the information on the flood maps website to support better planning decisions in the future. We have built a considerable archive from flood events over the past two or three decades which will give us data enabling us to identify what is at risk. The only caution is that the landscape photographed in the 1980s may have altered since then which may affect the risk. The delivery of a comprehensive flood risk assessment and management strategy for the State requires, as a prerequisite for its success, the close interaction and involvement of several State agencies and other public bodies and organisations with very different remits. The Water Framework Directive and local authorities fall within the remit of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Met Éireann has a significant role in weather-related issues. Waterways Ireland, which is a cross-Border body, is responsible for the canal systems and the navigation aspects of the Shannon. The ESB is responsible for the hydro-power system. Last Saturday I had a very interesting morning being briefed by the ESB in Ardnacrusha which I had never before visited. The EPA is the nominated competent authority for the delivery of the objectives of the Water Framework Directive. In addition to the list of Departments and organisations mentioned, there is a range of other bodies and organisations with varying degrees of involvement and responsibility in the whole area of flood-related work.

With specific reference to the Shannon, the process of carrying out the Shannon flood risk assessment and management study will involve all of the main stakeholders who have a role in the management of the Shannon being consulted, including the ESB and relevant local authorities. The objective of this exercise is to determine relative roles and define relative responsibilities of all the main bodies involved with the Shannon with a view to ensuring that all flood risk factors are identified and managed in a coordinated way.

A further area where strict EU coordination criteria apply relates to the requirement that EU member states take appropriate steps to coordinate the application of the Floods Directive with the Water Framework Directive. On the basis of the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive, the framework for a coordinated approach to the management of the River Shannon already exists. This framework will ensure that flood protection measures and other flood mitigation measures will be fully addressed.

I very much look forward to listening to the views and knowledge of Senators, many of whom I have met when visiting affected parts of the country. Public representatives at all levels have played an important role in the affected areas, being a channel of communication to various authorities and helping with emergencies and I pay tribute to that role. Another group that is not always mentioned in despatches is the local media which was a quite indispensable source of information in flood affected areas about what was happening, what the prospects were, what the weather would be like and so on.