Mattie McGrath on Tipperary Flooding - Blames Lack of Maintenance

Good morning, good last night and I too want to thank you for selecting my topic here tonight. It's raining cats and dogs as we know and we had huge rainfall last Sunday night week in lots of parts of the country but we had it in Tipperary, Tipperdown, Haas, especially in Tulles Town was badly affected and indeed the Caire Castle and Tipperary, Tipperary Caire Castle MD and it just was unprecedented kind of rainfall but the lack of maintenance maintenance that's going on in rows, you know, the cuts, the personnel and indeed I have to single out the TAI or NRA who developed fine motorways through Tipperary and we see them regularly doing maintenance with road markings and whatever else and hedge cutting but I'm told by people adjoining landowners that they don't do any maintenance on the drainage and I'm talking about the drainage now that sometimes it's cut house and sometimes there's a high, the road is high and you know they went to land and they cut two rivers and streams and I pointed out at the time in many cases they put in small curvas, a number of small curvas rather than one eye of a bridge and they're all getting blocked with debris from the forestry and everything else, natural debris and the damage being done to people's homes, property, I have a case tonight of a farmer who's part of his family was washed away by a torrent coming down from the Galti Mountains in the parish of Bella Nubi and Minister, Minister, the cost of projects this year has gone spiralling upwards in the council so their maintenance budget is exhausted much earlier than any other year because of the increased costs Yeah, no, no, I'm not minister, no, there was a mistake, let's not call on that, no, I'm in flooding, there was a mistake earlier, sorry, sorry, no, thank you, there was a, there was a misprint, so the cost of projects has massively increased because of the cost of fuel and the oil-based products and which bitumen and tear and everything else, so Tipperary County Council are in a perilous situation because they've exhausted most of our road budgets and maintenance budgets and now they are faced with a bill of probably up to 500, half a million, which I understand from the Director of Services to my daughter, today, Councillor Maureen McGrath, that a letter will be arriving in the department imminently and from James Swords, a senior engineer and indeed Paul Farrell, engineers, that that kind of money will be needed to repair the damages done, but the big problem is lack of maintenance, lack of maintenance and lack of accountability because, you know, where that motorway was driven to, not driven to, but when the CPU and everything else was developed and were available, but there must be, you know, you just can't build a project and go away, walk away from it, we must go up into the uh, the upper issues of it and check the drainage and maintain it, it's not just the motorway and the access, we have to have access for fencing and everything else, but for into animals coming on, but it's a serious situation, so, uh, the funding bill will be coming in here and, um, unsuspecting motors then driving the motor with tons of rain crossing it because it's lack of drainage, it's a, it's a dangerous situation, extremely dangerous and many people have been seriously injured and worse on the motorway and the same with the motorway Limerick, the port lease, so, like we spent all this money on the motorways, but we must maintain the cuttilage and the, the percolation areas around them and drainage areas and above all we must protect life and limb, but protect properties of farmers and and householders and family areas and above all households, so, and the council staff and the GSS's, uh, went out and I said it here one day that, uh, one of them had suffered a, uh, minor half effect while I was in duty that night and he's recovered Walter Dohny, I spoke to him on Sunday, thanks be to God he's fine, but the council workers go out and everybody else has to try and sort it out, fire begins everything else, we shouldn't be putting these people in this kind of danger if proper maintenance and proper, um, um, uh, service of the projects was taking place. Thank you Laskin-Curler, um, thank you Deputy, um, the improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of the relevant local authority in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Uh, work on these roads are funded from council's own resources supplemented by state road grants. Uh, I understand and I, um, know from the deputy's contribution this evening, there was an intense rainfall event in County Tuporary over a short period of time and I'm aware that flooding affected properties over quite an area. Unfortunately, these severe weather events are becoming more frequent and they do highlight the need to focus on the measures needed to address climate change. As regards the impact on regional and local roads, I can confirm the Tuporary County Council have made initial contact with the department. It is understood, uh, and I've picked up from, uh, from Deputy McGrath through Councillor McGrath, that the council will be making a submission to the department seeking funding to assist repair works caused by the severe weather event. In relation to funding options for repair works, it is established practice that local authorities are advised by the department that a contingency provision should be preserved from the overall resources available to each local authority for regional and local roads so as to deal with damage caused by severe weather conditions. As regards the department's grants, local authority may carry out repairs from the regional and local road grants available to them and from their own resources. And in this context, it's open to each council to determine and reprioritise its work program following severe weather events. Where that is not feasible, such as in this case, I gather from Councillor McGrath, or from Deputy McGrath, the department always tries to work with local authorities to facilitate the management of repair works in these situations. Once the submission is received from Tipperary County Council, which identifies the works required, together with an estimate of the costs, it will be reviewed by department officials and the department will liaise further with Tipperary Cocoa in relation to the necessary repair works and the timing of the works. In the event that national roads are affected in the manner described by the Deputy, Transport Infrastructure Ireland has stated that it is necessary to carry out a survey and hydrological assessment of the culverts and drains in the affected area to understand the cause behind the flooding and to quantify the details and costs of any works to be completed. Mr. Minister, it's late tonight, and we're all tired, but this is Bangladesh, because they did the studies, they did the hydrological studies and everything else, and they didn't put in big enough culverts. And we are good, and farmers, and people who knew the area, and the topography of the area knew, and they wouldn't listen. So now we have a problem that they won't do maintenance. They can't just as a developer project, you can't build your house and forget to clean the chutes. And this folly, every time we ask a question about flooding, about climate change, it just doesn't cut it for me. Because it's climate change, yeah, we're not climate change deniers, but rivers won't be cleaned, gullies haven't been cleaned, streams haven't been cleaned. So what happens? Everybody that runs off of this building ends up in a river, and every other building, and field, and agriculture, and everything else, and roadways. So unless we start, not forgetting climate change, but deal with them, clean the basins of the rivers, but above all maintenance in this case of the motorways. And it makes me very angry, to listen to this, blame climate change. We can get down, downpours of rain, yes. But if the gullies and culverts are cleaned and maintained, it will take 90% of it. There might be 10% overflow. But you see farm yards washed in because of the torrent, and that same place was started 20 years ago, during the development of the motorway or before it was developed. So there are issues. TI, NRA before it, are not maintaining, are looking after the cutilage of the projects. But in main, in area, ordinary roads then, the county council workers aren't on the ground, we all know that. Maintenance is not being done, and they have pressed taxpayers, ratepayers, you name it, are being discommoded, being destroyed in their business and their homes. Tunnel's town, there were numerous houses and businesses flooded. They won't get insurance because it's a recurring event, and it's mainly because of blocked gullies and inputs. And that's basic maintenance, and it's not being done. So we have bills now, and then you said to go back to the existing budget. They can't in November, 1st of November, go back to the budget. They spend it normal years, but this year, especially because of the high costs, of the increased costs of the materials, the budget is completely expended, so they need a dig out from the department. But above all, we need to revisit this and do maintenance, not fabricate work afterwards. Thank you. Minister. Look, I appreciate the Deputy's concerns. I know that you raised the issue with the Taoiseach earlier today about the damage to property. I know you say you're not denying climate change, but you also cannot deny the severity and the strength of weather events has completely changed over the last number of years. They've become much more frequent and much more severe. And it's not just a case of a simple solution of draining drains. I will convey the points that have been made to Minister Rhine and to Minister Nocton, and draw his attention to the letter that has been submitted from Tipperary County Council to his department. And as I said, I will copy the Minister with your remarks this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.