Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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163. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of meetings held by the interdepartmental flood policy co-ordination group in each of the years from 2011 to 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54153/17]

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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The Interdepartmental Flood Policy Coordination Group, that I chair, was established in 2005 and initially met on four occasions between March 2006 and September 2009. During this period, members coordinated on the delivery of many elements of the Outline Implementation Plan for the 2004 Flood Risk Management. These included the publication of planning guidelines, actions in respect of forecasting and the launch of the website resources www.flooding.ie, www.floodmaps.ie and www.waterlevels.ie.

The Group was reconvened in July 2015 and has subsequently met 7 times; the Group met twice in 2015, four times in 2016, and once in 2017. In addition to these meetings of the full Group, there have been a number of other meetings involving members of the Group in relation to individual aspects of the national flood policy.

In November 2016 Government agreed an interim report from the Interdepartmental Flood Policy Coordination Group setting out progress on its work and making appropriate recommendations for consideration by Government. This report is available to view on the OPW website at

Progress has been made against all the key recommendations contained within the interim report:

- The Government has approved the administrative arrangements for a targeted and prioritised once of Voluntary Homeowners Relocation Scheme for those properties worst affected by the flooding of Winter 2015/2016.

- The Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine have commenced study to determine the feasibility of any future once-off targeted scheme for Voluntary Farm Building Relocation.

- Work is continuing on the Government strategy to improve the availability of flood risk insurance cover by prioritisation of investment in flood defences by the OPW and Local Authorities and improved channels of communication between the OPW and the insurance industry including the sharing of data.

At the Group’s most recent meeting last September members reported on progress in their areas in national flood policy including updates in relation to Community Resilience, the Climate Action Plan, the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme and the associated Flood Risk Management Plans.

It is currently envisaged that the Group will next meet early in the new year.