Brendan Smith urges revised flood scheme criteria, cross-border action

Thank you very much, Cahirlic, and like you, Cahirlic, and Deputy Buckley, I welcome our witnesses here today. I know I have heard on several occasions in the Dáil Chamber, but Deputy Buckley and my colleague, Fianna Fáil colleague, Deputy James O'Connor, highlight the concerns of residents in all those areas, and what the people, those communities went through with different flooding episodes. So obviously all of us are in support of those projects, but we've moved on as quickly as possible, and we understand the time lag. That there is in getting work done. My particular question relates to Mr Casey's concluding remarks with regard to the mine of flood mitigation works of coastal protection scheme. I know that that was introduced in 2009 by the Office of Public Works, and was a very welcome development. Back in mid-December, I had questions to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in regard to funding provided to local authorities under this particular scheme. Now the Minister in his response to me at that time said the criteria for the minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme are currently under review, and that there would be an increase in funding thresholds, and also in the criteria of the scheme. Now the Minister at that time indicated OPW hoped to advise local authorities early in the new year, I assume, of the revised criteria. I presume that's when you refer to the revised conditions, Mr Casey, that local authorities will be informed of over the next few weeks. And I think as well as the funding threshold being changed, from my engagement with very good officials at local authority level in my two counties of Cavan and Monaghan, I think it was rather hard to meet the criteria to draw down funding under that particular scheme. Because I have been advocating for drainage works, flood mitigation measures to be undertaken at a number of occasions, where there have been consistent episodes of flooding year in, year out. But again, the Council has said on a number of occasions, some of the applications they put in, they wouldn't meet the criteria, because even though there were incidents on an annual basis of flooding on certain occasions, there were traffic volumes to be done and research and all this type of thing that made no sense. You know, those of us who grew up in the countryside, who grew up on small farms, ever before there was the very sophisticated and very welcome Met Office information available nowadays. Members of the farming community could predict when there was a flood coming. Those of us who grew up in rural parishes were very aware of that. So, Mr. Cayce, I sincerely hope you can bring back to your colleagues in the OPW the need to revise the welcome revision in the funding threshold. That's very welcome. But also that criteria, where there are consistent episodes of flooding, then those projects should go ahead without unnecessary barriers being put in place, of councils being able to draw down funding. And I know where projects have met the criteria, it's made a huge change to different households and communities and half parishes and different parish areas. And my colleague, Senator Flaherty, would have the same instance in his constituency in Longford-Westmeath as well. Mr. Cayce, you'll be aware that I'm consistently advocating for close cooperation with the authorities in Northern Ireland. You will have seen, you may have heard me through different debates in the Dáil-Erdan over the years, and through successive parliamentary questions. The need for close cooperation with the Department of Infrastructure in Northern Ireland, and I know there is cooperation, they're part of the technical coordination groups, particularly with regard to sea farms, etc. One area that concerns me hugely is the whole Erden River. As you know it right, County Cavan flows through County Fermanagh into Donegal, and it causes huge flooding in my county and in Fermanagh as well. And I know over recent weeks, I travel through County Fermanagh to go to parts of my own constituency in Cavanagh, so I do. So I see the cross-border difficulties that we have in Cavanagh with flooding of the Erden. And I know it's an area that there have been some studies done in relation to lowering the level of the river or whatever. It's an issue, and I know, I don't expect you to give response today, but I would sincerely hope that those issues are kept to the forefront in all areas of cross-border cooperation and in reviews of what projects might go ahead to benefit both North and South. But it's I sincerely hope that progress can be made with revised conditions for the minor flood mitigation works. Thank you for hearing. Thanks, Deputy Smith. Mr Casey, would you like to respond there? Thank you, Deputy, for that. So just to say, yes, we have carried out a review of the minor works, and we will be writing to each local authority now very shortly in the next few weeks, I would say, to clarify the changes that are being made on foot of the minor works scheme review and what the revised criteria around that will be. And we have been listening to the concerns of the communities and the local authorities in conducting that review. And ultimately, there are criteria such as the benefit cost criteria that do apply to the minor works scheme. And that's really with the view to getting a return on that expenditure of public funds that the benefits of doing the work match the costs as well. So sometimes that can prove to be a bit of a barrier for the local authorities. And we're very conscious of that. But we have looked at what we can do to address that challenge. And we will be writing with further details on that very shortly, as I say. Just to your point on cross-border collaboration, so we do, and we have been for many years now, and since going way back, even pre-Seafram, we have ongoing engagements with our colleagues in Northern Ireland with DFI rivers, for example. And we collaborate in terms of our assessments of flood risk in cross-border catchments and indeed in cross-border flood mitigation measures. And that work continues. And we do have very close collaborations. And in fact, we would meet DFI rivers at a high level, at a senior management level, twice annually. And we also have technical engagement as well. So all of that work will continue. But I'd certainly be conscious of the concerns you've raised here today, Deputy, in relation to that ongoing engagement. Coira, could I make one comment? I thank you, Mr Casey, for your positive responses. Could I just say, back some years ago, when Minister O'Donnell was the Minister in charge of the OPWI, in exchange with him during oral questions, one time in relation to the cost-benefit analysis. And at that time, and I repeat it today, just because there are small numbers involved in rural communities that are constantly affected by flooding, they shouldn't continue to be disadvantaged. The reality of Ireland, and please God, it will always continue for our country. We have a dispersed population. We have people living in rural townlands. Those people are entitled to the benefits of modern construction and entitled to the benefits of flood mitigation works, as well as the person in the main street of our principal towns, as well. And thankfully, today, I see people, having served in the Oireachtas for quite a number of years, I see townlands today in my own county in Cavan, where there are people living that there was nobody living in when I started as a public representative. So we can grow our population in rural areas. And issues like that, cost-benefit analysis, and that should not disadvantage the less populated areas. So I thank you again, Mr Casey. That's a good point.