asked the Minister for the Environment the up-to-date position in regard to the plans to help alleviate the flooding problems in the Mallow-Fermoy and Kanturk districts of the Blackwater Valley in County Cork.
19.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Cork Flooding.
18.
asked the Minister for the Environment the plans his Department have in conjunction with the Office of Public Works to prevent or alleviate the flooding of Kanturk Town, County Cork, and other areas from Lambardstown to Rathmore which are prone to flooding.
20.
asked the Minister for the Environment if, in view of the statement from the Office of Public Works to the effect that it is not intended to bring forward the main arterial drainage of the Blackwater with a view to alleviating flooding at Mallow and Fermoy, County Cork, he will arrange that funds will be made available from his own Department or through a special grant from the EEC with a view to carrying out work which would give temporary relief in the areas which are constantly affected by flooding.
(Dublin South-East): I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 18, 19 and 20 together.
Cork County Council, at my request and in consultation with other bodies concerned, have prepared an emergency flood alert plan for the Blackwater Valley. The purpose of the plan is to give early warning of possible flooding and thus enable local authorities, other bodies, community groups and individuals to take suitable measures to protect life and property. I understand that the county council is installing equipment required for implementation of the plan and is having discussions on the plan with the Blackwater Flood Association.
Arterial drainage for prevention or alleviation of flooding in the Blackwater catchment is a matter for the Minister for Finance and I would refer the Deputies to the reply given by him to Question No. 584 on 11 May 1982. My Department are not responsible for works of this kind and I do not think it appropriate that I should be asked to arrange for funds to be made available.
Would the Minister agree that the first part of the reply he has given has no bearing whatever on Question No. 20. An emergency plan to help people to get out of their homes when they are flooded is not what is being asked for here. What is being asked for here is, in view of the fact that the Office of Public Works have said that they do not intend to change the priority list for the Blackwater drainage, that in the interim some help be provided to the people who are constantly under this threat of flooding, particularly in the Mallow area.
We have had a very good headline here in the matter of Questions. I am afraid the Deputy is embarking on a statement. Would he ask a question?
If it is proved that there is an engineering solution to the problem, surely it is for the Department of the Environment to provide the necessary capital to implement whatever is necessary, or in the event of capital not being available from the Department of the Environment, is there any EEC scheme from which funds could be got?
(Dublin South-East): Let me quickly take the areas the Deputy referred to. We took three Questions together and obviously the first part of my reply related to other elements that were requested for reply in the other two Questions. On the matter of EEC funding, that is a very interesting aspect to the problem and I will investigate that area to see if such a proposal could be implemented. It is interesting that the flooding in that area seems to follow a cyclical pattern, about every 30 years bad floods happen.
Is the Minister aware that on the last occasion when there was serious flooding in these areas the then Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, who belongs to the same party as the present Minister, assured the people of the area that he would get money from the EEC and failed to do so. Would the Minister now confirm that EEC funds are not available for flooding in the area?
(Dublin South-East): I have assured Deputy Sherlock that I will investigate that matter further. I will certainly do so in the light of what has been said but I cannot give an assurance that the funds will be available.
Will the Minister finalise the emergency plan that he promised to set up not now but when he was last Minister for the Environment? Also, the cycle of 30 years is not a reality. I am not 30 yet and I have seen about 15 big floods in that area.
(Dublin South-East): Let me take the final point made by the Deputy. For the information of the House, the statistics I have are of major flooding in 1980, 1946, 1916, 1886 and 1854. Those relate to very major floods in that area.
From 1854 onwards is going back quite a while.
(Dublin South-East): I just gave the major cyclical floods. I am not suggesting that there are not flooding problems.
If what the Minister says is correct we can expect another major flood in 1984. At the rate this emergency plan is going it looks like it will not be ready by 1984.
Could we have it for Deputy Barry's thirtieth birthday?
Could we move away from speculation about Deputy Barry's age and things of that nature and move on to the next question?
Would the Minister totally disregard the statistics he has here for the incidents of flooding in that area because there has been flooding which has caused as much damage as any one of the floods referred to by the Minister?
(Dublin South-East): I would not for a moment like to give the impression that I am not aware of the problem there. I am only giving these statistics as being the major calamitous floods that have taken place. I realise too well that it is a desperate area and I will do what I can to see that the matter is monitored as closely as possible.