Holly Cairns
Question:2. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of the flood relief scheme in Bantry, County Cork. [45593/21]
View answerThursday, 23 September 2021
Questions (2)
Oral answers (12 contributions)
As I know the Minister is aware, flooding continues to be a real risk for Bantry, with businesses and homes regularly enduring flooding events. He saw the extreme flooding in the summer of 2020. The Bantry scheme has been in the works for several years. I ask the Minister to please outline the progress made on the project, including any interim defence measures that will be made available.
The Minister and I visited Bantry after the devastating flood last year. We are both well aware of the torment the town faced at that time.
The reality is that interventions cannot come soon enough for Bantry. The flood risk management plan was launched in May 2018 and includes a recommendation to progress the project-level development and planning of a flood defence scheme for the town. A steering group comprising representatives of the Office of Public Works and Cork County Council is in place to progress the Bantry flood relief scheme. The scheme will protect approximately 198 properties when completed. On 11 March 2021, Cork County Council, in partnership with the Office of Public Works, issued tender documentation for the procurement of engineering consultants via e-tenders. Tenders were received on 30 July 2021.
An assessment of these tenders has been completed and it is expected that consultants will be appointed in the coming weeks. Once consultants are appointed to progress the flood relief scheme for Bantry, consultation with statutory and non-statutory bodies, as well as the public, will take place in the appropriate stages to ensure that all parties have the opportunity to make an input into the development of the scheme. In the meantime, Cork County Council has engaged a contractor to treat some of the invasive species in preparation for any flood relief scheme that will be undertaken in the town.
The flood relief scheme will be funded from the initial allocated €1 billion for flood risk management over the period of the National Development Plan 2018-2027. Provision for the cost of the scheme is included in the multi-annual capital allocation for the Office of Public Works, OPW, from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Cork County Council has also commenced the preparation of the consultants' brief to carry out the repair and the reconstruction of the Main Street culvert, which has been identified as a significant element contributing to the flooding on Main Street, New Street and north and south of Wolfe Tone Square in recent months. The OPW is liaising with Cork County Council on the integration of these works with the flood relief scheme for the town. In March 2021, an application was made under the minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme for interim works to mitigate flooding in Bantry, which includes installation of non-return valves. I will continue my response shortly because there is other material the Deputy might find beneficial.
I thank the Minister of State for the update. The flooding in Bantry, like other areas of west Cork, is a significant risk and source of uncertainty for households and businesses. Bantry is at risk from both tidal and fluvial flooding. It is important that these elements are considered together to put in place an integrated infrastructure to address the interconnected issues. As we approach the consultation phases of the project, I encourage the Minister of State to proactively engage with the community, which has a wealth of knowledge on the issues and solutions. In addition, the town needs interim measures to mitigate against flooding risk in the meantime. While the council's application for assistance under the minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme is with the OPW, as the Minister of State mentioned, any action he can take to expedite that process would be most appreciated, particularly with the winter months approaching.
The Deputy will be aware that during and since the summer of 2020, I have had a number of opportunities to visit the west Cork area - not just Bantry, but also Clonakilty, Bandon, Skibbereen and Rosscarbery. In the intervening period, I have met the Cork county manager and his team to follow up on what exactly has been done in the interim period. The commissioner of the OPW with responsibility for flooding and the director of flood relief and responsibility for the OPW have also been constantly monitoring the progress that has been made.
While I accept there is concern among all Deputies and other public representatives in the area, we have made significant progress in some of the west Cork towns to which the Deputy referred. For instance, the works in Bandon and Clonakilty have been completed and the works in Skibbereen are almost complete. However, significant works in other west Cork areas need to be completed. I am aware that other questions on this matter are to be answered today and I accept there is frustration about the length of time being taken. I am sure Deputies will have an opportunity to air their frustration and perhaps I will be able to discuss how some of that frustration may be addressed later on.
The Minister of State mentioned that there are several schemes in west Cork that are at a more advanced stage, namely, Bandon, Clonakilty and Skibbereen. In response to parliamentary questions that I submitted, the Minister of State noted that these schemes have been substantially completed, except for outstanding issues in respect of the Cork Road and Rossa Road in Skibbereen and the issues with the fish pass in Bandon.
The residents with homes in those areas that are now protected by flood defences need access to insurance and mortgages but cannot do so in many cases because the schemes are not officially recorded as complete. That has been a major impediment for them. I know that flood insurance is an entirely different issue, but I ask the Minister of State to look into the steps required to ensure each of the programmes or schemes can be signed off and completed as soon as possible so that people can acquire flood insurance, mortgages and planning for extensions. People across west Cork are being held back in that regard.
From my perspective, and I am on the record of the House as making the point, when the State, through the Exchequer and the taxpayers, puts large sums of money into protecting communities from flooding, whether in Mallow, Fermoy or elsewhere in County Cork, in Clonmel in County Tipperary or in any other town in the country, and these investments are proven to work, there is a reciprocal expectation that Insurance Ireland will pony up and allow those communities to get on with their lives. I have raised this issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, through the interdepartmental working group on flooding. I know it is an issue that he is equally concerned about. We need to get to a landing place where local authorities and the OPW, through the Exchequer, make massive investments - worth hundreds of millions of euro - in communities where flood defences are put in and they work-----
Sorry to interrupt but can the schemes be signed off? Will the Minister of State provide an update on when, for example, the scheme in Skibbereen will be signed off?
Where schemes work and have been finished for years, as a citizen, taxpayer and representative of the people, I would expect that Insurance Ireland would provide insurance. Where that is not the case, I think it is a legitimate question-----
I am asking about the OPW signing off the schemes as completed.
That is not a matter for the OPW. Those working at the OPW are engineers, not underwriters. It is not our job to assess insurance. That is the responsibility of an entirely different part of the Government.
No, but it is the OPW's job to finish the scheme so that people can get insurance.
Where we finish schemes, we do so with local authorities. Where schemes are finished, and there is plenty of evidence of this around the country, that is a legitimate question that needs to be asked. However, it is one for an entirely different Department. Insurance Ireland has a role to play in this. There needs to be a bit of honesty attached to it. Where hundreds of millions of euro - in fact, billions of euro - are being spent by multiple agencies of the State to defend people, those people are entitled to legitimately ask why they cannot get insurance.