Written answers

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Planning Issues

9:00 pm

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 898: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has technical information to back up his wide ranging assertions and recent statements affecting housing developments at various locations here to the effect that bad planning or zoning decisions were responsible for the flooding; if he is suggesting that developments including those in his own constituency that have been the subject of flooding over the past 20 years are as a result of improper procedures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1919/10]

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 910: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will acknowledge the damage done by his public comments (details supplied) relating to the development of Sallins in County Kildare; if his attention has been drawn to the offence caused to the several hundred homeowners whose property values and insurance costs and their ability to obtain insurance was negatively affected by his comments; if his further attention has been drawn to the existence of the obstruction that caused the flooding in this estate and that the flooding subsided immediately after remedial action was taken and that a permanent resolution is now being effected; if he will withdraw his comments and apologise to the residents in question; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2201/10]

Photo of John GormleyJohn Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions No. 898 and 910 together.

The Guidelines for Planning Authorities on the Planning System and Flood Risk Management which I published in November 2009 are aimed at ensuring a more consistent, rigorous and systematic approach to flood risk identification, assessment and management within the planning system. These guidelines provide, inter alia, that development in areas at risk of flooding, particularly floodplains, should be avoided unless there are wider sustainability grounds that justify appropriate development and where the risk can be reduced or managed to an acceptable level.

It is likely that some lands will have been zoned for development in existing or previous plans without the benefit of a detailed flood risk assessment in accordance with these guidelines and in the absence of detailed flood risk mapping which is now being carried out by the Office of Public Works. Where a review of a development or local area plan shows that there may be a flood risk on certain zoned lands, such zonings must be reconsidered.

The Guidelines define a floodplain as any low-lying area of land next to a river or stream, which is susceptible to partial or complete inundation by water during a flood event. While strict application of this definition to the land on which the Waterways Estate in Sallins was built may be a matter of interpretation, a development that otherwise complied with proper planning and sustainable development was inundated by water following unprecedented recent rainfall. I understand that in conjunction with Irish Rail, Waterways Ireland and the Office of the Public Works, Kildare County Council has identified the scope of remedial works necessary to minimise the likelihood of recurrence of flooding in this area; these works have now commenced.

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