Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Acting Chairman. I am extremely grateful to the Leader of the Seanad for making time available for me to address the House on matters relating to flooding and flood risk management. It is a timely opportunity for this debate as there have been a number of policy developments in this area. As a country, we are still continuing to spend a significant sum of money on flooding relief. It is an issue that has impacted on every county and on so many communities throughout the country.

In the months since my appointment as Minister of State, I have visited many areas of the country that have been affected by flooding and have heard at first-hand the experiences of people who have seen their homes, businesses and farms damaged by flood waters. The loss and hardship that these people - and many others like them - have suffered is truly dreadful and while we will never be able to solve all the flooding problems in the country, much is being done to address the worst affected areas through the valuable work being done by the Office of Public Works in conjunction with local authorities.

A core objective of the OPW's strategy on flood risk management is that we have a robust, proactive and sustainable approach to managing flood risk in this country. Following on from the adoption by the then Government of the report of the Flood Policy Review Group in 2004, the development and implementation of the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management, or CFRAM, programme is the central means by which this core objective is being achieved.

The CFRAM programme is a central pillar of national policy on flood risk management and its implementation is ensuring that Ireland will meet the requirements of the EU Floods Directive. The programme is assessing and mapping existing and potential future flood hazard and risk within 300 areas throughout the country, which have been recognised as being at potentially significant flood risk. These are known within the programme as the areas for further assessment or AFAs. The designated AFAs were selected following a preliminary flood risk assessment which was carried out under the programme in 2011.

The CFRAM programme will produce a comprehensive suite of flood maps for each AFA, which will identify the risk in those areas for flooding events of varying severity - ranging from frequent events, such as those we might see every couple of years, up to extreme events that might not be seen for generations. The programme will then look at all possible options to address flood risk in each AFA and, where possible, will identify viable structural and non-structural flood risk management measures to manage or reduce the flood risk within the AFAs and within each river catchment as a whole. The identified measures will form the basis of a series of flood risk management plans which will set out the medium to long-term strategy and a prioritised programme of work to achieve the effective and sustainable management of flood risk in Ireland.

The CFRAM programme is being progressed through six engineering consultancy projects commissioned by the OPW and in partnership with local authorities, with each project covering the main river catchments in the east, south-east, west, south-west, the Shannon and the north-east/Neagh Bann.

The programme is now at the stage of production of draft flood maps and the OPW and its consultants are currently rolling out a series of informal public consultation days on the draft maps in the AFAs. These are being advertised locally and I would encourage all elected public representatives and the public generally to attend these events wherever possible. While the maps have been developed using state-of-the-art technology and make use of all available information, local residents may have some information or knowledge that can further improve the flood maps.

This is an important point. No engineers, no matter how good they are, sitting at a desk in Dublin or elsewhere, can necessarily have the degree of knowledge that people who have been living in an area for decades or generations can have. We are eager to get this process right and to ensure that we can harness all that local knowledge and take it on board where possible. A further formal statutory consultation on the maps will take place early next year when all the draft maps are completed.

The CFRAM programme will not be simply a series of scientific studies which will not be acted upon. People at risk of flooding do not need a nice, glossy report to sit on a shelf. These flood maps will contribute directly and in a very real way to the better management of flood risk. These maps are being produced for 300 communities around the country covering 90 coastal areas and nearly 7,000 kms of river.

The maps can and will inform sustainable planning, to help ensure that we avoid repeating the mistakes of the past by building in flood prone areas. The State and Government will no longer ask taxpayers to intervene or to provide relief where development is undertaken in known areas of flood risk. This is an important message for local authorities. I have outlined that local authorities and the OPW work well in partnership. Once these maps are published, however, if people go ahead and choose to build and develop on lands that are known to be flood prone, those developments will not be included in a cost-benefit analysis when it comes to carrying out schemes. It is important for the planning process to play its part as well.

These maps can also inform the emergency response authorities to help ensure an effective response to reduce damage during flood events. They can also help to make local residents and businesses aware of the risk from flooding and, if so, to be able to prepare for flood events.

In addition, the management plans under CFRAM will provide a clear roadmap on how to deal with the risk of flooding in each area. The measures to manage flood risk included in the plans will have been developed to outline design following a process which involves a robust assessment to make sure the defined measures are cost-beneficial and that they will be socially and environmentally acceptable to communities.

A critical element of the CFRAM programme is the establishment of flood risk management objectives. The objectives set out what we are trying to achieve and will play a major role in the formation of the management plans. The objectives are fundamental to the CFRAM process because they will significantly influence which flood risk management measures, such as a flood relief scheme or a flood warning system, will be adopted for each community or area. They will influence the priority given to the measures for each community or area around the country and, hence, determine when the measures will be implemented.

The objectives are grouped under four broad criteria: social, economic, environmental and technical. The OPW is currently engaged in a public consultation on the objectives which commenced on 14 October and will end tomorrow, on 28 November. It is important that we get as broad a viewpoint as possible on the proposed objectives. I would encourage anyone who is interested to go to the CFRAM website and to make known their comments and observations, which can be done up to 5 p.m. tomorrow.

I wish to acknowledge the help of many stakeholders. I have had an opportunity to meet with chambers of commerce, business groups and the IFA, both locally and nationally. We have had a national stakeholders' consultation day in Dublin Castle. The role being played by community, business and agri organisations feeds into the process and stress tests it. Their members' concerns and input are important. I am grateful for the time they have devoted to the process.

The CFRAM management plans will result in a significant number of proposed measures to address flood risk in the locations covered by the programme. The cost of these measures will be substantial and it will be possible to implement them only over an extended time period. For this reason, the recommended measures will be prioritised on the basis of a multi-criteria analysis. This prioritised list of measures will essentially determine the medium to long-term capital investment programme for flood risk management in Ireland. There is no doubt that this process of prioritisation will be challenging, socially and politically, but it is an essential element of a properly structured and transparent flood risk management programme. The word "transparent" is important. When we start ranking areas of priority in terms of schemes once this process is completed, it is important that people can see the logic behind it. They must be able to see how we arrived at this area being No. 1, while another area is No. 161. Transparency in the consultation process of developing those criteria is important.

Obviously, we are not waiting and sitting idly by for the outcome of the CFRAM process to take practical action to defend against flooding. The Government has committed €225 million to flood risk management under its Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016 Medium-Term Exchequer Framework. This is a substantial capital allocation which is enabling the OPW to continue with its flood relief capital works programme in collaboration with local authorities. Under this programme major flood relief schemes in cities and towns such as Dublin, Clonmel, Carlow, Kilkenny, Mallow, Fermoy and Ennis have been, or are very nearly, completed. Other major projects are currently under construction at locations including Bray, Waterford and on the rivers Dodder and Wad in Dublin.

In 2015, we are aiming to commence construction, subject to procurement and statutory approval processes, on other major schemes including Bandon, Skibbereen, Templemore and Claregalway.

Many more schemes are in the pipeline. The largest scheme currently at design development stage is the lower Lee flood relief scheme, which will provide flood protection for the city of Cork, as well as Blackpool and Ballyvolane. The outline design of this scheme is currently being finalised following comments and views submitted at and since public information days held last year and earlier this year. I was in Cork with Senator Colm Burke recently to meet business groups to discuss it. This will be followed by a statutory public exhibition, which I expect will take place in February or March 2015. Detailed design of the scheme will be ongoing throughout 2015, and construction should commence early in 2016.

Apart from these major schemes, assistance is also available to the many areas of the country that are affected by more localised flooding events. Since 2009, the OPW's minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme has provided funding to local authorities to undertake smaller-scale works to address localised flooding and coastal protection problems within their administrative areas. The funding allocated under this scheme now totals almost €30 million, involving almost 470 projects in total. The minor works scheme has made a very real and practical contribution to addressing flood risk in many communities throughout the country. Members of both Houses will have seen the practical application and often make representations to the OPW and work with the local authorities to arrange for applications to be lodged. Thus, a local authority can apply for an allocation of up to €500,000 to address what is termed minor flood mitigation works, although a minor flood can often cause major problems in a local community.

All works carried out or funded by the OPW, whether major or minor, are subjected to cost-benefit assessments, and only those schemes that are shown to be economically viable are proceeded with. Dublin city provides an excellent example of the value of good investment in flood defences. In 2002, tidal flooding in Dublin caused €65 million worth of damage. Since then, significant works have been carried out by the OPW and Dublin City Council on improving and strengthening the tidal flood defences, particularly along the tidal stretch of the Dodder river. I inspected these works a few weeks ago. At the start of this year, Dublin had a greater tidal event than in 2002, but the total damage on this occasion was less than €100,000. It shows the economic benefit of these schemes.