Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 December 2016
269. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 152 of 24 November 2016 the name of the appointed consultant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38369/16]
View answerThe River Feale Certified Drainage Scheme was constructed by the Commissioners of Public Works between 1951 and 1957. The scheme included the dredging of the Cashen Estuary and comprises of 295kms of river channels, 144 kms of flood defence embankments, 338 bridges/culverts, 193 sluice structures and 1 pumping station located on the River Brick, which was constructed in more recent years. The objective of this scheme was to protect agricultural land from inundation by high tides and to provide drainage outfall to the benefitting area of the scheme. In accordance with Section 37 of the 1945 Arterial Drainage Act, it is incumbent on this Office to maintain the scheme in proper repair and effective condition. The scheme is maintained by a direct labour workforce
On 26 October of this year, following an open procurement process on E-Tenders, the Government’s procurement portal, and also published on OJEU - the Official Journal of the European Union - this Office accepted a tender from Black and Veatch Ltd., Redhill, Surrey, England, in partnership with Nicholas O’Dwyer Ltd., Nutgrove Office Park, Dublin, for the provision of consultancy services for the Cashen Estuary Drainage Project.
Stage 1 of this project will consist of identifying the key environmental issues in the study area, which may impact upon possible options and/or which may impose constraints on the viability and/or design of these options; assessing options for, and then develop and design, viable, cost-effective and sustainable options for the Study Area to return the Feale Catchment Drainage Scheme (CDS) to proper repair and effective condition; carrying out an Appropriate Assessment (AA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening and preparing an Analysis Report for each viable option and Optioneering Report detailing modelling outputs of agreed options and outline design of viable options.
