Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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11. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is satisfied with the rate of progress of improving flood defences following last year’s severe damage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42047/14]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Government Decision of 11 February 2014 allocated total funding of up to €69.5 million for clean-up, repair and restoration works in relation to public infrastructure that was damaged in the period 13 December 2013 to 6 January 2014. Of this sum of €69.5 million, up to €19.6 million was allocated for repair of existing coastal protection and flood defence infrastructure based on cost estimates and submissions made by the local authorities concerned to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (DoECLG). This funding is being made available to the local authorities via the Office of Public Works (OPW) based on programmes of works submitted by the local authorities. The Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Transport, Tourism and Sport and Agriculture, Food and the Marine are responsible for the approval of programmes of work and the disbursement of funding for repair of other damaged public infrastructure such as roads, piers, harbours and other community facilities and amenities.

In addition to the €19.6m funding for local authorities, an amount of €1.2m was also allocated under the Government Decision for repair of damage to OPW's own coastal protection and flood defence infrastructure.

Based on the programmes of works for repairs to coastal protection infrastructure that were submitted by local authorities, total funding of €19.0 million was approved by the OPW for 176 projects that were deemed to be within the scope of the works covered by the Government Decision. In this regard I would point out that the Government Decision did not allocate funding for strengthening or new coastal protection works. It applied to repairs of existing infrastructure only.

The prioritisation and progression of the repair works is entirely a matter for the local authorities. The progress made by local authorities in carrying out the repairs has varied from county to county depending on the particular circumstances prevailing and the scale and nature of the damage to be repaired in that area. Overall however, I am generally satisfied that the Councils have gone about the repair work in an efficient manner and I encourage them to continue to progress the works as expeditiously as possible.

I am satisfied that the OPW has made excellent progress on the repair of damage to the flood defence infrastructure, mainly embankments, for which it is directly responsible and that most of the required repair work has now been completed.

The question of improving flood defences through significant strengthening or upgrading of existing defences or new works is a separate issue to the programmes of repair works for which specific funding was allocated by the Government Decision. The requirements for such improvement or new works is being assessed in the context of the OPW's Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) programme. The principal output of this important programme will be a series of integrated plans of specific measures to address, in a comprehensive and sustainable way, the significant flood risk factors in the main areas of flood risk throughout the country.

Good progress is being made on the six regional CFRAM Studies under the National CFRAM Programme. There are three main stages in the Programme each involving public consultation:

- Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) - finalised in 2011

- Flood Hazard Mapping - 2013 – 2014; informal public consultation on maps now underway and formal, statutory public consultation to commence early 2015

- Catchment Flood Risk Management Plans – draft Plans available by end 2015 with a view to having Plans finalised in 2016