Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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274. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to previous parliamentary questions, including Question No. 277 of 3 July 2012, if he is aware that properties in Tullig Mór and Tullig Beg in Ballinhassig, County Cork, were flooded on 29 and 30 December 2015 and that many of the same properties were also flooded in 2009; the plans the Office of Public Works has to prevent this problem from recurring in Ballinhassig; what assurances he can give in this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1293/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Office of Public Works is liaising with Cork County Council in relation to information on the flooding of properties in that local authority area during December, 2015.

The OPW received a number of applications in 2011 and 2012 from the Council, under the Minor Works & Coastal Protection Scheme, to carry out flood relief works in Ballinhassig. These applications did not meet the criteria for the scheme. A further application was received from the Council in March 2013 to carry out a flood risk assessment and outline design of flood relief proposals. This application was not approved as the area was subject to study as part of the Lee Catchment Flood Risk Assessment & Management (CFRAM). The OPW's consultants for the South Western CFRAM study reviewed the Lee CFRAM outputs in 2013 and indicated that the hydrology for the Owenboy River needed to be updated.

It is the intention of the OPW to update the hydrology and undertake a Flood Relief Feasibility Study for Carrigaline, subject to available resources. In that context it is expected that progress on this study, which will cover Ballinhassig, will commence during the first half of 2016.

Depending on the outcome of the Feasibility Study, flood relief measures for Ballinhassig will be progressed.