Mairéad Farrell
Question:32. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform the status of the progress of the flood defences planned for Galway. [51992/23]
View answerTuesday, 28 November 2023
Questions (32, 42, 61)
Mairéad Farrell
Question:42. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform if he will provide an update on flood relief for Clarinbridge, Galway city, and other areas in Galway impacted by Storm Debi; if he will further outline his Department’s plan for future flooding in these areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52361/23]
View answer
Catherine Connolly
Question:61. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform the details of his Department’s plan for assisting the recovery of communities in County Galway impacted by recent flooding, with regard to flood relief measures, flood defences and climate adaptation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52248/23]
View answerOral answers (8 contributions)
Gabhaim buíochas. Tuigim go dtuigeann an tAire Stáit an méid a tharla i nGaillimh le roinnt laethanta agus seachtainí anuas agus ní rud nua é seo. Tá a fhios agam go raibh sé anseo agus i nGaillimh, fiú amháin, nuair a bhí an fhadhb sa Chlochán.
I seek an update on Galway flood defences. I am aware the Minister of State has been in Galway in relation to the most recent floods and that he also came when Clifden was hit badly.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 32, 42 and 61 together.
I saw at first hand when I visited County Galway recently, following the flooding caused by Storm Debi, the devastation and impact it has had. The Government has assessed the risk to those communities from the most significant flood events. CFRAM, Ireland’s largest study of flood risk, was completed by the OPW in 2018. An output of CFRAM, the Government’s flood risk management plans, provide the evidence for a proactive approach to designing and constructing flood relief schemes for the most at-risk communities.
Across the county and city of Galway, there are a range of schemes at stage 1, working towards a design option. Galway City Council is leading Coirib go Cósta, the city flood relief scheme, and schemes for Gort lowlands and Clifden are being led by Galway County Council. The Office of Public Works is leading the Ballinasloe flood relief scheme, which is scheduled to present the emerging preferred option in early 2024.
The process of redefining the scope for the Coirib go Cósta scheme, as I said to Deputy Connolly a while ago, has taken longer than first envisaged due to the complexity and increase in scale of the scheme. It has been carried out in consultation with the project steering group by the appointed engineering and environmental consultants who are progressing the scheme. A draft revised scope reflecting additional works for the scheme has been presented to Galway City Council. This revised scope has been reviewed by the Coirib go Cósta steering group members and agreement has been reached.
In parallel the consultants have submitted a revised programme incorporating the additional scope and this programme is currently being reviewed by the Coirib go Cósta steering group members. The city council has been advised that, subject to a contract variation, it expects the revised programme should be available by mid-December 2023. During my recent visit to the city, I requested that a meeting be held between Galway City Council and local representatives - to include the council and Oireachtas representatives - to update them all on the scheme's progress. This is scheduled to happen shortly.
Investment in these schemes is brought through the flood relief measures under the National Development Plan 2021-2030. This has allowed the OPW to treble the number of flood relief schemes nationally at design, planning, and construction to some 100 schemes. Nationally, 53 schemes have been completed, including Claregalway and Dunkellin in County Galway, at a cost of some €550 million which are protecting more than 12,000 properties and are an economic benefit to the State in damage and losses avoided, estimated to be in the region of €2 billion. Today, work to protect 80% of all at-risk properties nationally is completed or under way. Commencing on all flood relief schemes identified by the CFRAM flood risk management plans is constrained by the availability of the specialist engineering resource required. The Government is committed to delivering these flood relief schemes including the proposed project for Portumna. The OPW is working closely with the local authorities, including Galway City Council and Galway County Council, and at all times strives to expedite and progress capital flood relief works with the minimum delay within available resources.
Since 2009, the OPW has approved funding under the minor flood mitigation works of some €11.4 million to County Galway for some 237 projects including a project for Clarinbridge. In addition, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is responsible for the emergency humanitarian support scheme to support businesses, community, voluntary and sporting organisations. These schemes were activated in County Galway following the severe weather conditions caused by Storm Debi. Under this scheme, emergency humanitarian contributions may be made available towards the costs of returning business premises and community, voluntary and sporting bodies to their pre-flood condition including the replacement of flooring, fixtures and fittings and damaged stock. Humanitarian assistance for homeowners is available through the Department of Social Protection.
I know the Aire saw the complete and utter devastation in Galway and the very real-life impact it has had both on businesses and on the wider community, within the city and county. The stark thing that stood out to me when speaking to one particular business owner was that she said that this may not have happened before or it may not have happened to this extent before, but we know this will happen again and asked what can we do to ensure it does not. Her business was completely destroyed in terms of what had been there previously. That was something that was not expected and was not anticipated. This is only really the start of our winter season, of our storm season and of the impact it will continue to have.
It is welcome that the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, stated there will be a meeting between Galway City Council and the public representatives. One of the crucial things is to get as much information out to the public, specifically the members of the public who are impacted by this so that is welcome. He mentioned stage one, when does he expect that to be completed? I understand he mentioned mid-2023 at one point and I was not sure if it was related to that specific thing because it is the end of 2023 now. He also mentioned that a delay is caused by a shortage of specialist engineers. I assume he is working on trying to recruit those specialist engineers and I am aware of that. How many of those types of specialist engineers do we have at this moment across the State who can currently work on this? Are they specific to geographical regions or can they insist on other areas?
I appreciate the Minister of State answered some of this question earlier on but I welcome the opportunity to tease things out. There are five stages. This was all set out to me over the years. On stage one, the options assessment began in late 2020. Then it will move up to stage five for handover in 2029. Where are we at in that process? I welcome that Storm Debi has been taken into account but we had a huge flood in 2018. People in the Claddagh and everywhere were affected. In addition, Oranmore and Clarinbridge were affected. At what stage will we take a more expansive approach to this? Storms are coming practically every year - certainly in 2018 it was huge - and in between we had storms going back to 2009 and people in the Claddagh were flooded out of it. If we wait every year for each storm at what stage will the delays stop? Will we have a roll-out? Does the Minister of State have dates for me?
I thank both Deputies and I know they have both raised this with me previously. I know they both have a keen interest in it, as do the other Deputies in the city. Deputy Farrell is right, the devastation was catastrophic. It blew a wall out in front of Oranmore railway station. It made smithereens of it. Really, it is amazing there was no loss of life and were it not for the fact a shop worker was pinned between a fridge and a glass door in a shop in Clarinbridge he probably would have drowned inside the shop. Anecdotally, from what I have heard -and it is on the basis of receiving information from people in the dead of night as opposed to during the day - it was almost like a tsunami, the power of this event that came in. I understand there is frustration and there is frustration in an awful lot of places around the country. We have to make sure that first, we will get planning permission, and second that we will get planning permission for a scheme that will actually make a difference to the people of the Claddagh, of the area around the Spanish Arch, of the town and all of the parts of Galway that are affected. As I said already the programme for the scheme required a revision, following early indications, in the hydrological and hydraulic modelling.
Deputy Farrell asked whether there was a shortage in the skills available. There absolutely is. It is not just in the public sector, it is in the private sector. It is not only in Ireland there is a dearth of this available skills-set across Europe. Even to try to get people to come in from abroad is very difficult. That is one factor.
The other factor is, and Deputy Connolly alluded to it, we have now seen a major Atlantic storm that has wreaked havoc on the city, yet again. Luckily there has been no loss of life. An awful lot of damage has been done - public and private - and we want to incorporate that into the modelling. That will not take forever and a day and this is why I was anxious that when I met Galway City Council that it would bring the public representatives - council and Oireachtas - up to speed as quickly as possible around the timeframes. I know what stage one means and I know there are five stages, and that stage five is the handover and that is the ultimate point. We will hand over in Athlone, County Westmeath this year. I am reluctant to give a date beyond the ones I have given already for good reason, and I think Deputy Connolly accepts my bona fides in that, other than to say this is a huge priority for us. We met all of the local authorities last week - Galway, Louth, Wexford, Cork city and county - that have had the worst impacts of the storms that have happened only in the first four weeks of the winter. We still have not even gotten into the depths of the winter and we have had six named storms. I am particularly worried about Galway. I am particularly worried about Limerick - my nearest city - and about Cork and Dublin. These are huge urban conurbations. They are not defended and they need to be defended.
The Aire is correct in saying it was a tsunami and the concern is obviously that there will be more tsunamis and that they will be worse. As the Aire mentioned, we were very lucky in Galway that there was no loss of life. We need to do everything in our power to ensure the people and the communities of Galway are protected going forward. I note he said there were not enough of these specialists, particularly the specialist engineers, both on a national level and on an international level. Does he know if we are training these specialist engineers ourselves at the moment and how many there are? Does there perhaps need to be a focus on it because as that particular business owner said to me this will only get worse so how do we ensure we have the people trained up? In the here and now we want to get this progressed as quickly as possible. However, we also need to look at the long term or fadtéarmach to make sure we have specialists who are able to do the work going forward. As a result of that I hope these issues will not take so long to be rectified. I welcome what the Minister of State is saying and we do need to see as much of that information go out to the general public. The general public will of course want things done as quickly as possible but there is obviously a realisation as well that it needs to be done to the best of the ability to ensure the safety of the people of the area.
While looking at these things on a long-term basis to ensure people's safety, what is being done on a short-term basis to protect communities while we wait on longer term measures to be enacted?
There is a certain frustration on my part because I have borne with the process for a long time. The Minister of State referred to the fact that, following the completion of the hydrological and hydraulic modelling, significantly more defences were necessary. That was way back in January 2023. We knew this even before Storm Debi and before that again because there was major flooding in 2018 and in between. The lack of skills was never mentioned, the Minister of State will agree, in any reply to date. That is a new burden. Up to this point, it was simply that it was progressing too slowly and each year there was a new obstacle to overcome, in addition to the storms. The money involved was €9.5 million. What will it cost now? What will it cost between now and when it is ready? The original date, as I said, was 2029. Obviously, it is going to be later. We will be paying out all the time and terrible damage will be suffered by homeowners and businesspeople. Surely, at some stage, somebody must say what needs to be done and how quickly and provide a revised timescale and revised figure. There must be consultation with the public. Three days were promised - there was one day two and a half years ago and there have been no updates. We need to bring people with us. They need to know what we are doing.
The last point is exactly the reason I asked Galway City Council, the steering group and the Office of Public Works to engage in the first instance with Deputies and public representatives to dispel misinformation, of which we heard a lot in this House earlier in a different arena. The Deputy is right about bringing the public with us. Other public infrastructure from Galway city towards Salthill will be built in the not-too-distant future. It may have to be incorporated into this. I was on my holidays before I got sick during the summer. A woman running a shop in Salthill selling bric-a-brac for children recognised me and said "You are the flood man, are you not?" I was kind of off duty and I asked why. She said, "Whatever you are doing here, whether it is the greenway, cycleway or flood relief scheme, will you do it once and do it right and keep the water out of my shop?" I agree with the Deputy about the level of frustration. I would love to see the works commence but I cannot commence the works until I get planning permissions and have the proper hydraulic modelling done. There is frustration around the delays. It is not a shortage of money. I have no shortage of money. The biggest shortage I have is the ability to spend it. I must say that uniquely as a Minister of State.
On skill sets, the chairman of the OPW and I met the Minister for higher and further education about this matter. We raised the issue, whether through Engineers Ireland or directly through higher education organisations like ATU and the University of Galway, to encourage young men and women into civil engineering disciplines. This will not just affect our ability to deliver these schemes in Galway, the Gort lowlands or Clarinbridge. By the way, the chances of winning the lotto once is one in however many million. To win it twice in three or four years, which happened in Clarinbridge, is off the scale. We want to encourage people into the discipline of civil engineering because it is a great career. As well as that, we need that expertise. The Deputy knows as well as I do how long it takes to train a civil engineer. It takes a minimum of four years in university and then they have to serve their time after that. These are not skill sets we will magic up. However, that will not deter us.
There is a revised schedule for mid-December 2023, which is effectively now. Once Galway City Council has scheduled a meeting with Deputies, I have no problem attending a meeting with Galway City Council and Oireachtas Members because I am acutely aware of the issues, which are similar to those in Cork city. We have finally made progress in Cork city. It is a different part of the country. We are making progress and will finally, years later, be able to go out to tender, for instance, on Morrison's Island, the core of the city centre in Cork, not too dissimilar to the situation in Galway. These are concerning issues for me. If it helps, I will gladly meet public representatives with Galway City Council, the OPW and the steering committee to see what can tangibly be done around the timeframes for these plans.
Question No. 33 taken with Written Answers.