Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 July 2016
513. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of pilot projects identified since 2005 to date to prepare flood maps and flood risk management plans for a river basin projects; the delivery date of each project; the estimated cost at inception; the estimated cost if delivered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22305/16]
View answerA review of national flood policy was undertaken in 2003-2004. The review was undertaken by an Inter-Departmental Review Group, led by the Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW). The Review Group prepared a report that was put to Government, and subsequently approved and published in September 2004.
The scope of the review included a review of the roles and responsibilities of the different bodies with responsibilities for managing flood risk, and to set a new policy for flood risk management in Ireland into the future.
Three specific recommendations of the Report, led to the development and implementation of the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme. These were:
- Focus on managing flood risk, rather than relying only on flood protection measures aimed at reducing flooding.
- Taking a catchment-based approach to assess and manage risks within the whole-catchment context.
- Being proactive in assessing and managing flood risks, including the preparation of flood maps and flood risk management plans.
In 2005, a Plan for the implementation of the new policy was developed by the OPW, and this included the proposed approach for developing and implementing what became the National CFRAM Programme. This Programme would be a major undertaking that is new within Ireland, and so it was hence decided that pilot projects should be undertaken to develop and test the process before rolling the Programme out at a larger scale. It was intended that pilot testing might be undertaken over a range of catchments to develop an understanding of the different issues that might arise in catchments of different characters (as influenced by factors such as size, degree of urbanisation and availability of data). The selection of pilot catchments was however primarily governed by data availability, the pro-activeness of Local Authorities and prioritisation based on the existing degree of potential risk and the pressure for future development
The Implementation Plan identified nine candidate communities or catchments as possible pilot CFRAM projects. Four pilots were eventually progressed, which were:
- The Lee CFRAM Pilot Project, which included large urban areas of high risk (i.e., Cork City), as well as a number of smaller towns and villages potentially ay risk, with flooding occurring from both the rivers and the sea. This catchment hence included priority areas of assessment (i.e., Cork City) as well as a diverse range of factors that would enable robust testing of the CFRAM process.
- The Dodder CFRAM Pilot Project, which included significant urban areas within Dublin that had previously experienced severe flooding, and hence was a priority area of assessment.
- The Fingal - East Meath Pilot CFRAM Project where there was significant pressure for development leading to the relevant councils proactively seeking flood risk assessments to inform sustainable development.
- The Suir CFRAM Project, where previous work had been done, and which was deemed suitable to be undertaken in-house to build the technical expertise to enable OPW staff to critically assess and work with the CFRAM outputs, noting the OPW’s responsibility to maintain and review the Plans.
Of the remaining candidates projects, it might be noted that:
- two candidate rivers/catchments were integrated to form part of the scope of the Fingal - East Meath Pilot CFRAM Programme,
- flood risk assessments and/or the development of flood risk management measures were taken forward for two candidate communities through other projects, and,
- major schemes were progressing to address the principal areas of risk in two other candidate catchments.
The first of the Pilot CFRAM Studies (the Lee Pilot CFRAM Study) commenced mid-2006, and the Dodder Pilot CFRAM Study and then Suir Projects then commenced shortly thereafter. The Fingal-East Meath Pilot CFRAM (the FEM-FRAM) Study began in 2008 following a request from Fingal County Council. The projects have been delayed by a number of factors, including aerial survey delays.
The draft Flood Risk Management Plans, which represents substantial completion of the work, were published as follows:
- Lee Catchment: February 2010
- Fingal - East Meath Area: November 2011
- Dodder Catchment: March 2012
The completion of the Suir CFRAM Project is now aligned and co-ordinated with the South Eastern CFRAM Project, given the overlap of membership between the Steering Groups for both projects.
The contracted and out-turn costs for the pilot CFRAM Studies is as set out as follows:
|
- |
Contract |
Out-Turn |
|
Lee Pilot CFRAM Project: |
€1.8m |
€3.0m |
|
Fingal - East Meath Pilot CFRAM Project: |
€1.5m |
€2.3m |
|
Dodder Catchment Pilot CFRAM Project: |
€1.1m |
€1.3m |
|
Suir CFRAM Project: |
€2.4m |
€2.7m1 |
1: Projected cost to end 2016
Costs have increased above those contracted by €2.4m. Of this increase, €1.1m is for additional work agreed in advance, including the development of new methods and approaches for testing in the Pilot Studies, and subsequent application in the National CFRAM Programme, and the work required to re-calibrate and validate the Lower Lee model after the flood of November 2009. Payments of €1.2m have also been made as compensation to the consultants for disruption and additional work related primarily to the delays in the delivery of the survey data.
