Vol. 556 No. 4
138 Mr. McHugh asked the Minister for Finance the situation in relation to the work being carried out by the Office of Public Works or other agencies to find solutions to the annual flooding which takes place in the Gort area of County Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20788/02]
A major multi-disciplinary flood study of the south Galway region was commissioned by the Office of Public Works in 1995 but no overall drainage scheme for the region was found to be feasible.
However, the south Galway flood study, final report of April 1998, identified several potential localised alleviation schemes, which involved drainage channels or culverts. The south Galway flooding steering group was set up in 2000 to examine the feasibility of these potential localised schemes. One of these schemes involving the construction of a zoned low permeability embankment dam at Lackan has been implemented under the Lackan – Ardrahan – certified drainage scheme. Another local scheme involved the construction of a number of culverts in the Kinvara area and this work has also been completed.
Another of the potential localised alleviation schemes considered by the steering group was Cregaclare, flood protection embankment and drainage channel to the Aggard stream. The Aggard stream – Cregaclare – certified drainage scheme was publicly exhibited earlier this year from 19 February to 8 March and Office of Public Works is currently considering all observations which were received from concerned parties. All observations will be responded to and alterations to the scheme, if any, arising from these observations will be examined and costed. At that point, the scheme will be considered for submission to the Minister for Finance for confirmation.
