Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2024
78. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to provide an update on the OPW’s response to ongoing flooding and rising waters at Lough Funshinagh, County Roscommon. [17597/24]
View answer82. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to provide an update on the emergency solution for ongoing flooding and rising waters at Lough Funshinagh, County Roscommon. [17596/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 78 and 82 together.
I visited Lough Funshinagh on Friday 12th April and have seen at first hand the devastating impact the situation there is having for home owners and the community.
Since January 2024, the average daily levels are rising by about 1cm and are at their highest ever recorded levels some 3.35m above the normal annual high level of 66 mOD (metres Ordnance Datum), spanning an extended area of circa 178 hectares.
Roscommon County Council has deployed every emergency response measure it can and is achievable through road raising, pumping and sandbags, to keep the rising water levels from entering people’s properties.
The OPW is currently supplying seven pumps to Roscommon County Council, and servicing these pumps on site, to support the Council’s efforts to mitigate and manage the flood risk.
Lough level changes are being closely monitored and risk assessed on site by Roscommon County Council.
The excess levels in the lake have reduced the ecological status of Lough Funshinagh that is a designated site under the EU Habitats Directive.
Since 2021, Roscommon County Council started works to lay an underground overflow pipe to take the excess waters, by gravity, to the River Shannon. These works are 60% complete. Roscommon County Council has been stopped, through judicial reviews, on two occasions from undertaking and completing these emergency works, to reduce the levels back to their normal high level of 66 mOD.
As a result, Roscommon County Council, since March 2022, is progressing the design and environmental assessments to find a solution to flooding in this area and established a Steering Group and Expert Group with cross government representatives, including the OPW and National Parks and Wildlife Service, to inform and support this approach.
On Friday 12 April 2024 I visited the area and, together with OPW officials met with local residents, elected representatives, Roscommon County Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and held constructive discussions towards finding a solution as quickly as possible, involving the completion of the underground overflow pipe and including completing temporary works, as an emergency and conservation measure, to manage the flooding in this area.
Logistically and technically works can be completed as soon as possible and a request for legal advices is with the Attorney General to identify, legally, if a statutory or planning consent process can support these works and conservation measures in these circumstances at Lough Funshinagh.
