Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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24. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide an update on the catchment flood risk assessment and management programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16817/14]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Office of Public Works is currently undertaking the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme, in partnership with its technical consultants, local authorities and other key stakeholders. The CFRAM Programme is being delivered through six comprehensive, catchment-based studies and is a strategic and fully co-ordinated approach that recognises the need, in line with international best practice, to move to a more sustainable, planned and risk-based approach to dealing with flooding problems. As well as delivering on national policy for flood risk management, the Programme will also meet the requirements of the EU ‘Floods’ Directive that came into force in November 2007.

The Programme, which is focused on 300 communities in areas of potentially significant risk including 90 coastal areas, lies at the core of the assessment of flood risk and the long-term planning of flood risk management measures throughout the country. The core outputs of the Programme will be a comprehensive suite of flood risk maps and a flood risk management plan for each area of potentially significant risk. The management plans will include a prioritised list of measures, both structural and non-structural, to address flood risk in an environmentally sustainable and cost effective manner. Structural measures in the plan will be taken to outline design stage.

The CFRAM Programme will be used to determine national priorities for State investment in flood defences, on a systematic and objective basis using Multi-Criteria Analysis that takes into account social and environmental factors as well as economic criteria. An OPW website, , provides information on each area of the Programme and provides updates on the progress of the various studies being undertaken.

The CFRAM Programme is progressing through three phases. Stage one, the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment, was completed in 2011. The current stage is the CFRAM Studies, including related topographic surveys and hydraulic river modelling. This core element of the Programme will run to 2015/16. The final stage is the Implementation and Review stage which is scheduled for 2016 and beyond and will be cyclical thereafter. Each stage of the CFRAM Programme includes a consultative process which facilitates both stakeholder and public participation.

The CFRAM Studies, commissioned in 2011 and early 2012, are progressing well, with all of the major survey contracts completed, with over 30 public consultation events held and all of the local authorities briefed on the Programme, and the detailed flood maps for the 300 communities now being produced. The CFRAM Programme involves the capture and generation of significant data sets that will be of use to other public bodies, such as in planning, infrastructure design, development of flood forecasting systems, etc. This in turn will create wider benefits to the State.