Seanad debates
Tuesday, 7 March 2017
Commencement Matters
Flood Prevention Measures
2:30 pm
James Reilly (Fine Gael)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis as teacht isteach inniu. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, for taking the time on 21 February to meet with the residents in Portrane, an area where I was a GP for many years. Councillor Tom O'Leary, who represented me on the day, was very impressed with the practical advice offered by the Minister of State and his stated commitment on camera to fund works at this location under the minor works programme. I understand applications of up to €500,000 can be considered. However, this issue has been ongoing for too long. The local residents are extremely worried, frustrated and angry that no action has been taken to deal with their plight, namely, the real risk to their homes from flooding by the nearby sea. The residents have been responding proactively to try to defend their homes from the sea and feel abandoned by the authorities. They installed many temporary one tonne sandbags in order to protect the boardwalk, which has now washed away.
When I was a Deputy and Minister for Health I met with residents and the then Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Brian Hayes. Following on from the meeting an allocation of €200,000 was approved for The Burrow in Portrane under a national plan to deal with flood risk and damage. Nothing practical or real has happened since then. Reports have been written but real action to deal with the serious threats seems to be at a stalemate. I regret to say the only wall that cannot seem to be breached at The Burrow in Portrane is the wall of red tape stopping local residents from getting fair treatment and works to protect their homes.
The local residents' committee hears of flood defence works being approved at other locations and cannot understand why The Burrow in Portrane cannot get similar funding and works carried out to deal with the threat to their homes from the sea. Ray Brett, who the Minister of State met recently on his visit to The Burrow, explained to him that €1 million was approved and spent in Lahinch on a similar sensitive habitat area and is asking that such a scheme would be considered for The Burrow in Portrane. The installation of a membrane dug down 6 m and backfilled to protect the toe and sand dunes seems an environmentally practical solution, which was approved and has been proven in Lahinch.
In 2015 Fingal County Council advised a local Portrane family to evacuate their home. I am sure the Minister of State would acknowledge that is a very serious matter. I ask him, in a positive manner, to try to progress a solution. I know the Minister of State wants to do that. The issue requires a permanent solution. Has Fingal County Council contacted him or the Department since his visit to The Burrow in Portrane on 21 February, two weeks ago? In order to bring some sort of finality or deadline to the issue could I suggest or encourage the Minister of State to write to the council CEO, Paul Reid, and ask Fingal County Council to produce a plan for consideration by his officials within four weeks. I suggest that in one week or two weeks following that, the Department would facilitate a round-table meeting with officials from the OPW, the National Parks & Wildlife Service, Fingal County Council and three members of the Fingal coastal erosion committee in order to agree an acceptable plan that could be considered for approval by the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, in his capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW.
If action is not taken homes will be flooded and under threat, roads will be flooded and the natural habitat and dunes we all want to protect will be gone. It is time to knock heads together, which I know the Minister of State wants to do. As a practical man who has dealt with such issues as a public representative, I hope he will agree to setting up this process and arrive at a solution, which I am told he is anxious to fund.Can I plead that the residents not be subjected to another winter of inaction and uncertainty in regard to the safety of their homes?
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I thank Senator Reilly for raising this important issue. I am familiar with the case. As the Senator said, I visited Burrow Beach and Portrane on 21 February to view at first hand the impact that coastal erosion is having on the area. As I stated at the time, my office has surveyed and assessed the coastal erosion risk along the entire national coastline, as part of the Irish Coastal Protection Strategy Study, ICPSS. This information has been published and is available to all local authorities.
The study enables local authorities to develop appropriate plans and strategies for the sustainable management of the coastline in their counties, including the identification, prioritisation and, subject to the availability of resources, the implementation of coastal protection works of a structural and non-structural nature. My office supports and assists intervention management options which are economically justified on cost-benefit grounds and are environmentally sound.
Fingal County Council is working hard to identify viable solutions to the erosion problem at Portrane and I look forward to receiving proposals from the council in due course. The Office of Public Works, OPW, operates the minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme, under which applications for funding from local authorities are considered for measures costing up to €500,000 in each instance. Funding for coastal erosion risk management studies may also be applied for under this scheme. Funding of up to 90% of the cost is available for projects which meet the eligibility criteria, including a requirement that the proposed measures are cost beneficial.
Fingal County Council applied for and was approved funding of €57,800 under this scheme in 2012 to carry out a coastal erosion risk management study of Portrane to Rush which included Burrow Beach. The funding was drawn down in 2013 following completion of the study. Following the severe storms of winter 2013-14, funding of €200,000 was provided by the OPW to Fingal County Council under the Government decision on repair works to damaged coastal protection infrastructure which included projects at Burrow Beach.
Coastal erosion is a natural and ongoing process which takes place around the entire coastline. Coastal erosion may threaten human life, infrastructure such as roads and may undermine and cause damage to properties. However, it should be recognised that coastal erosion also has beneficial effects on the local environment, such as providing natural nourishment and a supply of sediment to adjacent beaches.
The primary objective of Government policy on coastal protection is to ensure that in areas identified as being at greatest risk of damage or loss of economic assets through coastal erosion or flooding, appropriate and sustainable measures are identified by local authorities to protect those assets and, where such measures are economically justified on cost-benefit grounds and compatible with all required environmental and other statutory requirements, they are implemented subject to the availability of resources.
Local authorities may carry out coastal protection works using their own resources. If necessary, they may also put forward proposals to the relevant central Departments for funding of appropriate measures depending on the infrastructure or assets under threat. As intervention within a coastal area may cause problems further along the coast, any proposed intervention measures are best developed in conjunction with a formal coastal erosion risk management study which has carefully investigated the problem and explored the full range of management options. The OPW has published guidelines for coastal erosion risk management measures and funding applications under the minor works scheme are available. I assure the Senator that the OPW will continue to work with Fingal County Council to address coastal erosion issues in the county over coming years, having regard to availability of resources and in the context of the framework for State investment in this area that I have outlined.
James Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I am sure he shares my frustration and that of the residents that funding of €67,000 has been drawn down in order to have a study completed. The study has been done, but no action has been taken. People are living in fear of their homes. There is a risk that if flooding occurs and defences are breached, it will affect low-lying land, cut off a large area of recreation and separate 20 or 30 houses from the rest of the peninsula.
I am glad the Minister of State mentioned Rush because there is erosion on that beach. I live in the area and I see the changes on a daily basis. I plead with the Minister of State to help me to put pressure on to make sure we get a result.We have spent the money on the studies. There is no more time now for further vacillation; we need action. While I accept there is a need for an overall approach to coastal erosion, it is not going to be sufficient to say to the people in Portrane and, to a lesser extent, those in Rush, that we should wait for a country-wide coastal study before any action is taken. The members of one family, in particular, are in fear that their house will fall into the sea. We do not want that on our conscience.
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I hear what Senator Reilly is saying. The national protection strategy is in place. When I met the residents in Portrane I said to them that the local authority is best placed to make an application. If the local authority needs assistance from the Office of Public Works in dealing with that application or the issues that may arise, then, by all means, my office is available to assist it. On 22 February representatives from Fingal County Council were to meet local residents and local authority members to discuss the options available or to set up what might be an implementation committee.
Our door is open. When I came into office, I wrote to all the chief executives in the local authorities to invite them to make applications for minor works schemes. We have money and we want to be able to spend it on works that we can get done as quickly as possible, as in the case of this particular issue. I have seen the damage to the walkway and the debris strewn around the beach. It is not the way things should be left. The Office of Public Works will work closely with the Fingal County Council in that regard.
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Minister of State. Perhaps Senator Reilly will talk to his local councillors to see if he can pressurise them to move it on.