Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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361. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the funding available to Monaghan County Council for flood relief projects under budget 2024. [47788/23]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The Government has committed €1.3 billion to the delivery of flood relief schemes over the lifetime of the National Development Plan 2021 – 2030 to protect approximately 23,000 properties in communities that are under threat from river and coastal flood risk. Since 2018, as part of a phased approach to scheme delivery, this funding has allowed the OPW, in partnership with local authorities throughout the country, to treble the number of schemes at design, planning and construction to some 98 schemes at this time. In the last 5 years (2018 - 2022), the OPW has invested some €300 million in flood relief expenditure.

To date, 53 schemes have been completed, which are providing protection to over 12,000 properties and an economic benefit to the State in damage and losses avoided estimated to be in the region of €1.9 billion. Consequently, work to protect 80% of all at-risk properties nationally is completed or underway.

In early 2023, senior managers in OPW’s Flood Risk Management team met and discussed with Directors of Service of local authorities the experiences and challenges with delivering the flood relief schemes at design, planning and construction. The discussion also considered the opportunities to improve efficiencies and timelines with delivering the next round of schemes.

Arising from and informed by these meetings, the OPW is piloting a new delivery model for flood relief schemes in counties Donegal and Kilkenny. The Pilot will better inform the prioritisation of future schemes nationally and the scope of services required from consultants to design and construct flood relief schemes.

There are three Tranche II Flood Relief Schemes in County Monaghan: Ballybay, Inishkeen, and Monaghan. There is a funding commitment for these projects as part of the National Development Plan and, informed by the results of the pilot, they will be progressed as part of the Tranche II suite of flood relief schemes.

In addition to the flood relief schemes noted above, the OPW Minor Flood Mitigation Works & Coastal Protection Scheme provides funding to Local Authorities to undertake minor flood mitigation or coastal protection works or studies to address localised flooding and coastal protection problems within their administrative areas. This scheme provides 90% funding to local authorities to manage localised flood risk.

To date, nationally and since 2009, my Office has approved 876 projects under this scheme and funding of €63m. The total approved funding for County Monaghan in that same time period is €2.5m. This is a very significant and important scheme for managing localised flooding problems, and both my Office and I encourage local authorities to avail of the funding under the scheme to address such localised flooding issues.