Alan Dillon
Ceist:74. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of final approval for a project (details supplied) in County Mayo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55884/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 16 November 2021
Ceisteanna (74)
Freagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)
A date that will live long in the memory of the people living and working in Crossmolina is 5 December 2015. For the second time in three weeks, the town centre of Crossmolina was devastated by floodwater sweeping through by the River Deel. It is coming up to the sixth anniversary of this event. I want to know when the scheme will be granted final approval to give certainty to the people of Crossmolina.
The OPW submitted Crossmolina flood relief scheme documentation to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for statutory confirmation under the Arterial Drainage Acts 1945 and 1995 on 28 September 2020. As part of this process, stakeholders were afforded a formal opportunity to provide comments on the environmental element of the proposed works. Following this consultation, independent consultants appointed by Department of Public Expenditure and Reform carried out a review of the scheme documentation. Following this review, supplementary information was requested by the Department in May 2021 and provided by the OPW in July 2021. The scheme is currently awaiting confirmation from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
The Department has advised that it has received final technical reports from its environmental consultants on the proposed flood relief scheme, following clarifications they sought from the OPW on further information recently provided on the proposed works. The Department is now finalising its review.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. What I say is not a criticism, but local residents are seriously frustrated with the situation that they find themselves in six years on. I take on board what the Minister of State said around the confirmation process, but this community will have to endure another winter of high water levels. Unfortunately, residents are extremely concerned and stressed out every winter because the necessary works have not yet been completed. What can we expect to unfold in the weeks ahead? Will the Minister of State clarify, subject to the confirmation process and judicial review, that a local OPW construction crew will be able to commence advance construction works on the scheme? In parallel with the confirmation process and the judicial review, can some tendering works for small projects under the OPW commence?
As was the case when another Deputy asked a question, I will respond in the same light. The OPW is at the mercy of a planning process and we have to adhere to it. We are the same as anybody who is applying for permission. In this case, we are applying for permission under the Arterial Drainage Acts and we have to go through a consent process. If we do not go through that process and have due regard to it, there can be objections, judicial reviews can be taken against us and we may end up in court. In this case, Mayo County Council could wind up in court. I have to be very conscious of what I say in the context of what I hope will happen. Obviously, I am very conscious of the fact that Crossmolina, Enniscorthy and towns all over the country are waiting inordinate amounts of time for these schemes. I hope the work will be done as soon as possible.
I appreciate the Minister of State's visit to Crossmolina last May to meet the members of the Crossmolina flood relief scheme, staff of the local OPW and members of Mayo County Council. The people of Crossmolina need progress on this scheme. We have to get the ball rolling on the construction. This is a €13.5 million project to protect 116 properties. The Crossmolina community has waited patiently following the initial delays due to design and environmental challenges and I ask that the Minister of State and the Department work efficiently to get this confirmation process approved.
As is the case with confirmation processes we have recently been through, for example, in Blackpool in Cork, a small urban village in an old part of Cork city, which my colleague, the Minister, will be familiar with, just when we thought everything was ready to go, we were taken into a judicial review process at the last minute. None of us knows the length of time it will take to get through it. That is very frustrating, particularly for old people living in old communities. Many of these towns, villages and urban centres are particularly old, vulnerable places, and Crossmolina is no different, that have been scourged for years by the plague of flooding. I have put it on the record of the House previously, in the presence of both the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Ceann Comhairle, that the current system for the delivery of these schemes is just not fit for purpose. There has been a great deal of toing and froing in COP26, but if these Houses are going to respond to the scourge of climate change, they might do me and the Office of Public Works a favour and tackle the system in respect of planning for the delivery of climate mitigation measures. They would be doing all the communities they serve a huge favour.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.