John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, who welcomes the opportunity to outline current and future developments in flood risk management.

The Minister of State again extends his sympathy to all those affected by the floods of November 2009 and who may still be suffering the aftermath of that extreme weather event. He has expressed before his deep upset at the level of damage and loss he witnessed, and his appreciation of the great work delivered locally by the emergencies services and other State agencies.

In the short intervening period, the Government has provided substantial additional funding for the areas affected by the November floods. These funds include an initial sum of €10 million provided for a humanitarian aid scheme to alleviate hardship caused by the flooding, €2 million allocated for a targeted fodder aid scheme administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, €14 million provided by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for post-flooding clean-up by local authorities and an increase to €50 million in the capital allocation of the Office of Public Works' allocation for flood risk management for 2010.

At national level, the need for a proactive approach to the management of flood risk was recognised by the report of the flood policy review group. The Government decided in September 2004 to adopt the recommendations of the review and the OPW was assigned the responsibilities of lead agency for flood risk management. The OPW's strategy for the management of flood risks is based on the recommendations of the review.

The main work programme to deliver on that strategy is the catchment flood risk assessment and management programme. This programme has commenced on the River Lee and River Dodder. The objective is to complete the programme nationally to meet the requirements set out in the EU floods directive. That directive requires that the level of flood risk in each catchment, including the Shannon, be identified and a prioritised plan of measures be drawn up to address the areas of significant flood risk. The OPW will take the lead co-ordinating role in carrying out these studies.

Moreover, by the transposition of the EU floods directive into national law, the OPW will become the national competent authority with overall responsibility for all matters relating to the assessment and management of flood risk in the State. The OPW will therefore be in a position to bring together the various stakeholders to develop a co-ordinated flood risk management plan for each river catchment. 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.

The OPW will be commissioning the Shannon flood risk assessment and management study, which is expected to commence in mid-2010. It will involve all the main stakeholders who have a role in the management of the Shannon being consulted, including the ESB, Waterways Ireland and relevant local authorities. The study will look at all options for dealing with areas of significant flood risk. 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 all flood risk factors are identified and managed in a co-ordinated way. This study will meet the requirements of the EU floods directive for the River Shannon catchment. The Minister of State wishes also to emphasise that, pending completion of the study for the Shannon catchment, the OPW, through its minor works scheme, will work with the relevant local authorities to identify areas that may benefit from interim localised mitigation measures.