Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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149. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform with regard to ongoing flooding issues in County Sligo to enable the Office of Public Works which has the machinery required to conduct small-scale work, such as removing trees from the rivers which will alleviate the flooding upstream at the lower ends of the Bonet, the Drumcliff, the Owenmore, the Ballysdare, and the Owenbeg rivers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11026/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Office of Public Works (OPW) carries out a programme of Arterial Drainage Maintenance to a total of 11,500 km of river channel and approximately 730 km of embankments nationally. These maintenance works relate to arterial drainage schemes completed by the OPW under the Arterial Drainage Acts 1945 and 1995. The OPW has a statutory duty to maintain the completed schemes in proper repair and effective condition. The annual maintenance programme typically involves some clearance of vegetation and removal of silt build-up on an average five-yearly cycle. Each year, work is carried out to approximately 2,000 km of channel and about 200 structures around the country. The planned OPW maintenance programme in 2016 includes work on approximately 21.5 km of the Bonet Arterial Drainage Scheme.

The other rivers mentioned in the question do not form part of arterial drainage schemes. I am advised that the OPW therefore has no responsibility for the maintenance of the channels, nor any authority to carry out any works there, and that Statutory responsibility for the maintenance and funding of the Coolaney, Drumcliff and Owenmore Drainage Districts lies with the relevant local authority, in this case Sligo County Council.