Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 322: To ask the Minister for Finance the position in regard to negotiations between Kildare County Council and his Department in the matter of the facilitation of the required flood alleviation works at Mill Lane, Leixlip, County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15436/06]

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 329: To ask the Minister for Finance, further to Parliamentary Question No. 161 of 6 April 2006, when the catchment flood risk assessment for the Rye River will commence; the likely time for completion of the report; and the studies which it has been agreed that Kildare County Council will carry out in the interim. [15559/06]

Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 322 and 329 together.

The Office of Public Works has agreed to undertake a local catchment flood risk assessment and management study for the Rye river, encompassing the towns of Leixlip, Maynooth and Kilcock. This will ultimately form part of a catchment flood risk assessment and management study for the entire Liffey catchment, which it is planned to undertake at a later stage. The OPW agreed to prioritise this section of the study at the request of Kildare County Council in light of the existing flood risk and development pressure in the area. Work will commence as soon as possible.

Catchment flood risk assessment and management plans provide a strategic overview of a river catchment and a context within which decisions on the most appropriate measures to manage existing and potential flood risk can be made. It is expected that it would take approximately 18 months to complete such a study of the Rye.

Kildare County Council is currently continuing with studies under way by ESBI in Leixlip and environs. The content of these studies is a matter for the local authority as they were not undertaken at the behest of OPW. In the context of this arrangement the Commissioners of Public Works will be willing to consider with Kildare County Council whether elements of work recommended by the studies could be regarded with reasonable certainty as likely to be compatible with the recommendations of the Rye CFRAM study. The OPW is willing to consider providing funding to Kildare County Council to carry out such works if they can be shown to be economically and environmentally sustainable.