Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for proposing this debate and Senator Boylan for contributing. I welcome the opportunity to address the House on flooding matters. Flooding is an important issue that affects many people in Ireland. That is increasing as time goes on. Extreme weather events around the world in the past year have shown us all that we must act quickly to protect ourselves and our planet. This year's extreme weather has provided a stark backdrop to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Flooding is just one of those extreme events. The frequency and intensity of flooding has greatly changed, and will change into the future, as Met Éireann can confirm. The type and intensity of our rain and our weather have changed our flood management. Our flood management needs to adapt as well.

Ireland is gradually becoming a wetter place with more rainfall as a result of climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's 2020 climate status report. The United Nations released a code red report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, earlier this year, which found that climate change is occurring at a faster pace than previously estimated. The report noted that coastal areas will see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st century. This will contribute to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-lying areas, as well as coastal erosion. Extreme sea level events that previously occurred once in 100 years could happen every year by 2100. Furthermore, the report noted that in cities, climate change impacts may be amplified including flooding from precipitation events and sea level rise in coastal cities.

The Government is focused on doing what it can to mitigate the effects of climate change. The recently published national development plan is underpinned by climate action objectives, including significant investment in flood relief schemes to be progressed over the lifetime of the plan from 2021 to 2030. This is identified by flood risk management plans should protect approximately 23,000 properties in communities threatened from river and coastal flood risk. We passed the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 in July. This embedded the process of carbon budgeting into law. Earlier this month, we welcomed the publication of the proposed carbon budgets from the Climate Change Advisory Council. We will be publishing the 2021 climate action plan shortly. Every sector of the economy will need to play its part. There will be different targets for each sector based on their respective starting points and the relative difficulty, cost, speed and benefits of reducing emissions.

As my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donovan, outlined in the recent Seanad debate on flood risk management, the Government has a strong record in managing flood risk. The Office of Public Works, OPW, is the lead agency for co-ordinating the delivery of flood risk management policy. It chairs interdepartmental flood risk co-ordination group, which takes a whole-of-Government approach to the issue of flood policy. The co-ordination group comprises representatives from eight departments, two offices and the local authority sector. The OPW carries out this role by co-ordinating the implementation of the flood risk management policy and measures across three strategic areas.

The first area is prevention. This is achieved by avoiding construction in flood-prone areas. Examples of initiatives taken in this respect include the statutory planning system and the flood risk management guidelines, which were issued by the then Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in 2009, as well as the once-off voluntary homeowners relocation scheme, which is operated by the OPW. Local authorities are required to have regard to planning guidelines which set out a rigorous approach to flood risk assessment when considering the development of plans and assessing planning applications. The OPW has continued to review forward-planning documents to help to ensure the 2009 guidelines are implemented and to promote sustainable development. These documents have included the regional, spatial and economic strategies, as well as development and local area plans.

The second area is protection. This is brought about by taking feasible measures to protect areas against flooding, including the implementation of major flood relief schemes. In addition, the OPW’s minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme provides 90% of funding to local authorities to address local flooding issues, to a cost of €750,000. Since the establishment of the scheme in 2009 and up to the end of 2020, in excess of €55 million has been approved for more than 828 projects across all local authorities. Completed schemes to the end of 2020 are providing protection to in excess of 7,325 properties, which makes a massive difference in local communities, as Senators will be aware. The OPW's arterial drainage maintenance programme of 11,500 km of channels and 800 km of embankments protects 77 towns and villages and 242,000 ha of agricultural land.

The third and last area is preparedness. We have been planning and responding to reduce the impacts of flood events, including through the establishment of the National Flood Forecasting and Warning Service, NFFWS, and the national emergency framework for major emergency management, and to develop national and community resilience. Historically, flood risk management focused on arterial drainage for the benefit of agricultural improvement. Arising from increasing flood risk in urban areas, the Arterial Drainage Act 1945 was amended in 1995 to permit the OPW to implement flood relief schemes to provide flood protection for cities, towns and villages. The OPW’s major flood relief schemes are typically designed and built to a standard that protects areas against the one-in-100-year flood event, and coastal areas against the one-in-200-year flood event, where it is feasible to do so. These are significant flood events that can cause significant impacts and are often called “once in a lifetime floods”. In reality, the term "one in 100 years" that means that there is a 1% chance of them occurring in any single year.

To establish which communities are at risk from these significant flood events, the OPW in 2018 completed the largest study of flood risk ever undertaken by the State. The OPW’s catchment flood risk assessment management, CFRAM, programme was undertaken by engineering consultants on behalf of the OPW, working in partnership with local authorities. The CFRAM programme studied 80% of Ireland's primary flood risk and identified solutions that can protect over 95% of that risk. CFRAM is a whole-of-river solution. The programme takes in all of the catchment area, and not only areas around the mouths of rivers. The OPW, together with its partners in local authorities, conducts a flood risk study on the entire catchment area, from the gestation to the completion of the programme. The national CFRAM study followed best international practice. It was the largest study ever undertaken of our risk from significant flood events, including potential impacts of climate change. These solutions are set out in a series of 29 flood risk management plans. They were launched in May 2018 and they are available on floodinfo.ie. They include some 150 additional flood relief schemes. The Government has committed €1.3 billion to the delivery of these flood relief schemes over the lifetime of the national development plan to 2030, to protect approximately 23,000 properties in threatened communities from river and coastal flood risk.

Since 2018, as part of a phased approach to scheme delivery, this funding has allowed the OPW to treble to over 90 the number of schemes at design and construction at this time. Completed schemes by the OPW are providing protection to over 10,000 properties. The economic benefit to the State in damage and losses avoided is estimated to be in the region of €1.8 billion. Today, work by the OPW is complete or under way to deliver protection to 80% of properties to be protected by this significant investment programme. On the issue of flood risk management and the impact of climate change, the OPW prepared a climate change sectoral adaptation plan for flood risk management for the period 2019 to 2024, in line with the requirements of the national adaptation framework and the climate action plan 2019. The plan was approved by the Government in October 2019. The sectoral adaptation plan sets out a long-term goal for adaptation and flood risk management to promote sustainable communities and support our environment through the effective management of the potential impacts of climate change on flooding and flood risk. It includes a range of actions to meet the objectives of enhancing our knowledge and understanding the potential impacts of climate change for flooding and flood risk management. It does this through ongoing research and assessment with partners, adapting our flood risk management practice to effectively manage the potential impacts of climate change on future flood risk, and aligning adaptation with regards to flood risk across sectors and wider Government policy including planning and development. Key actions in the plan focus on the ongoing assessment of the risks from climate change, the inclusion of adaptation in flood relief schemes and the consideration of potential future flood scenarios in planning and development management. Good progress is being made on implementing some of the actions set out in the plan. For example, maps of future flood extents under climate change scenarios have been published through the web portal floodinfo.ie.

The OPW is providing funds to the Eastern and Midland Climate Action Regional Office for research to further improve our understanding of the potential impacts of changing rainfall patterns. Assessments have begun into the adaptability of flood relief schemes, those currently under design and those already completed, which is important as some of these must change. The design brief for future schemes includes a requirement to consider and plan for adaptation needs. There is also work towards the establishment of the NFFWS, through Met Éireann.

Turning to the motion raised by the Senator, I note that whereas OPW has no powers to instruct the ESB on its works on the River Shannon, the ESB has been consulted and is content to abide by the proposed legislative amendments, should they be adopted.Whereas the OPW has no powers to instruct the ESB on its work on the River Shannon, the ESB has been consulted and is content to abide by the proposed legislative amendments, should they be adopted.

It should be noted that the Bill does not change the purpose of the 1934 Act, which focuses on electricity generation. The removal of the water level limits from the 1934 Act neither increases the ESB's powers nor provides additional flexibility in how the Shannon operations are managed. The levels referred to in the 1934 Act do not constitute mandatory operational levels. The new wording that purports to give the ESB power to create new channels and deepen existing channels will not obviate the ESB's obligation to obtain planning permission or obey both national and EU legislation on the environment. Given the Bill does not change the purpose of the 1934 Act, which was for electricity generation, any works envisaged by this amending Bill would equally need to be for the purpose of electricity generation. Restrictions in water flow in the River Shannon are primarily as a result of the river's topography and not legislation. The Shannon flood risk management plan published by the Office of Public Works in 2016 is the correct vehicle for managing flood risk on the river.

The River Shannon is very flat from the headwaters at Lough Allen to the Parteen Basin upstream of Limerick. There are three large lakes, namely, Lough Allen, Lough Ree and Lough Derg, as well as many smaller lakes along the main channels of the river. The main controls in the river are at Ardnacrusha, Parteen Weir, Athlone and Lough Allen. The controls at the lower end of Lough Derg, Ardnacrusha and Parteen Weir are very effective at up to a ten-year flood. For larger events there is significant flooding in the old course of the River Shannon and it is not possible to regulate levels due to insufficient capacity downstream.

The controls at Athlone are not effective for managing floods and they control the level of Lough Ree during the summer. When the river is in flood, the level in Lough Ree is essentially the same as the level downstream and there is no possibility of managing floods. There is some storage in Lough Allen but this is not usable for around half the time the river is in flood, again because it is not feasible to discharge to the channel downstream. As a result, this storage cannot be relied upon as part of any flood risk management solution.

The river tends to flood quite frequently because the only way for the river to discharge excess water is by building up levels so water can be pushed out on the lower end. For example, on the longest reach, from Meelick to Athlone, the level of the river downstream of the weir at Athlone is often 1.5 m higher than the level at the upstream side of Meelick Weir, even when the river is not yet in flood. The river is level over this reach during periods of low flow. A flood lasting a few days on one of the major tributaries, especially the River Suck, can lead to a flood lasting several weeks on the main river. The capacity of the lakes and the flood plain is small relative to the overall volume of water that flows down the river so the flood plains and lakes fill quickly, often two or three days from the onset of a flood. It can take several weeks of dry weather for the river and lakes to return to normal levels in spring.

Detailed modelling was carried out as part of the Shannon catchment base flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, study, and this was extensively reported on in the hydraulics report, preliminary options report and flood risk management plan for the River Shannon, all of which are available at floodinfo.ie. This work concluded the operation of the controls at Ardnacrusha, Parteen Weir, Athlone and Lough Allen has been extensively modelled and studied as part of the Shannon CFRAM study and no realistic operational options to mitigate floods were identified.

I draw Members' attention to the water framework directive, which places an obligation on Ireland to protect water status from deterioration and bring all water to at least "good" status or good ecological potential by 2027 at the very latest. Any policy or legislative measures taken must comply with and be coherent with the implementation of both the water framework directive and the floods directive.

Ireland is currently in the latter stages of preparing the next river basin management plan for Ireland. The plan is required under the water framework directive for the period 2022 to 2027. In September 2021, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, published the draft river basin management plan for Ireland for 2022 to 2027 for public consultation. Achieving good water quality in our rivers, lakes, estuaries and seas is essential for protecting Ireland's drinking water sources, environment and people's quality of life. Investing in nature can bring multiple benefits with nature-based catchment management solutions improving water quality, reducing flood risk and creating habitats. In carrying out these functions, these measures can also provide multiple co-benefits, such as climate regulation, climate change adaptation, improved soil management and the creation of amenities.

Due to their multifunctional nature, the successful implementation of nature-based solutions requires multi-agency co-operation and engagement to fully realise their potential benefits. However, we must carefully manage the proposed legislation to avoid any unintended impacts on the water framework directive.

One specific challenge is the proposed Bill would allow other works without the required assessments, leaving project-specific assessment aspects to be incorporated, including perhaps an overall strategic environmental assessment and screening for appropriate assessment under the habitats directive. The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled the environmental objectives of the water framework directive are legally binding on member states and we will need to tread carefully to avoid compromising objectives of that directive.

The challenges we are facing are multifaceted and it appears there are very few easy solutions. I commend the proposed legislation as a potential additional tool in our collective armoury as we look for possible means of mitigating flood risk. We must continue our whole-of-government approach to flood policy and ensure we work collectively to minimise the risk of flooding and flood damage through prevention, protection and preparedness.