OPW: Office of Public Works
Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí
20-11-2010 - Address by Dr Martin Mansergh TD, Minister of State at the Office of Public Works. on the occasion of the launch of the National Flood Forum, in the West Cork Hotel, Skibbereen, Co. Cork.
Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for the very warm West Cork welcome I have received here this afternoon, especially from all the organising committee and the many McCarthys included on it. West Cork has always been one of my favourite areas of the country, and I came here very soon after my appointment to open an exhibition in the West Cork Arts Centre.
Last year’s exceptional flooding events galvanised you to organise this event. I am glad that yesterday’s anniversary was a dry and sunny day over most of the country. I am only too well aware, however, that danger is not far away, with quite serious flooding in Cornwall earlier this week, as well as a very serious event over the weekend over much of Belgium, which cost four lives. I remain thankful that luckily, from the bad flood in Newcastlewest in August 2008 through to the present, lives have been so far spared, but we cannot be complacent on that fact. When I visited Skibbereen in January of this year, I discussed with many townspeople, officials and public representatives the damage and difficulties caused.
My return visit provides me with an opportunity to update this community and this Forum on the very significant progress which has been taking place over the last twelve months. I would like to use this opportunity, therefore, to provide an overview of the last year since the November 2009 floods to illustrate the strides the Office of Public Works is making to alleviate the scale and severity of the events of that time. I will come back to the specific difficulties of Skibbereen later.
When I was just appointed to OPW my brother Nicholas, who is a longstanding planning officer in this county, said to me: "You need to figure out quickly where the disasters are going to come from. In your case, it’s obvious: flooding". How right he was. At the outset, I want to say that my highest priority in OPW has been in the area of flood risk management. As Minister of State in OPW, I spent much of last November and December visiting the many communities spread through nearly half the counties of the State, which suffered heavily from the effects of those flooding events. I answer innumerable parliamentary questions, and take regular adjournment debates on local flooding issues, as well as going before the Joint Committee on Finance. When I was abroad for other reasons, in Cumbria, the Netherlands, and China, I have taken the opportunity to meet the authorities, who deal with flood management, so that we can learn from practice in other jurisdictions.
One of my main challenges as Minister, particularly in extraordinarily difficult financial times, has been to ensure that there is an adequate budget for all the works that need to be done, and indeed, that within an OPW budget that overall has been cut to date by 35% since 2008, the money needed for a multiannual programme of flood relief works is provided. There has been no argument since last November from anyone in Government or the Civil Service disputing this priority. During my time as Minister, and this is as much due to the weather as to me, the flood relief programme has been brought to a higher level, and I am confident that this effort will be sustained by my successors.
As Minister with responsibility for the national flood protection policy, I am acutely aware of the crucial need to drive forward the coordinated programmes established by the 2004 National Flood Policy Review and the transnational coordinated frameworks set out in the EU Floods Directive and Water Framework Directive.
Central to the OPW's approach to flood management is the programme for the production and completion of Catchment Flood Risk Management Plans (CFRAMS) and associated flood mapping for all national catchments. OPW has been to the forefront in this respect, in that work had begun on Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management Studies (CFRAMS) on the Lee, Suir and Dodder Catchments, and also in the Fingal East Meath area prior to the adoption of the requirements set down in the EU Floods Directive. The Lee CFRAM was the first to be published, and it was followed by a consultation process. This established approach is being extended to all major catchments in Ireland. The same comment was made in Belgium after the floods last weekend that protection work had to focus on river catchment areas rather than just individual locations.
The OPW considers effective stakeholder and public participation in the decision-making processes in flood risk management to be of vital importance. Indeed, in the past we have not proceeded with works, where there is strong local opposition. This approach is demonstrated in the transposition of the EU Floods Directive, where the requirements for public consultation that we have taken upon ourselves, and committed to, go significantly beyond the requirements of that Directive.
In line with our practice to date, the OPW will not only comply with the formal, statutory consultation requirements, but will fully involve stakeholders and the public in the CFRAM process through stakeholder groups and a series of public consultation events held at a local level, and we acknowledge and welcome the desire that you and other community groups around Ireland have to engage fully with OPW on this to arrive at the most effective and appropriate solutions to the flooding problems we face. This national flood management framework provides a rapidly improving and coordinated response to the flood management challenges we must meet over the coming years. I am happy that the National Flood Forum will be consulted as part of that stakeholder engagement.
My Office has transposed the EU Floods Directive, by way of Regulations, into national law, well ahead of many EU member States. These Regulations have appointed the OPW as the national Competent Authority under the Directive, and this has served to strengthen the hand of OPW in the coordination of an accelerated and proactive response to the challenges posed by last year’s floods. It will allow for a more directive role for OPW in the coordination and cohesion of national flood management and improvement in our flood prevention and alleviation measures. There have been a number of incidents this year in Cork, Galway and Tipperary, where another authority interposed to try and stop or delay works being carried out. I am glad to say that in each instance the obstacle was cleared. But everyone needs to understand that, while of course every effort will be made to accommodate the different legitimate interests involved in river management, with due regard to national and EU law, protection of homes, lives and livelihoods must be in the last analysis take priority.
OPW has also commissioned a strategic review of flood forecasting and warning in Ireland to look at how best to progress flood forecasting capabilities in flood prone areas. This review is intended to identify and assess the options for delivery of such a service in Ireland. From my experience in Clonmel, where such a system exists, I personally have no doubt whatever about the value of such a system, enabling people and businesses to make preparations, to take evasive action, and pre-empt at least some of the damage habitually caused by flooding.
On the basis of this Review, we will develop an appropriate and sustainable strategy (including consideration of the potential impacts of climate change) for flood forecasting and flood warning in Ireland. The results of the review are expected in 2011.
More recently, my Office has become a partner in the European Flood Alert System {EFAS}, which is a very promising experimental research programme involving nearly 30 European agencies, which aims to provide medium-term flood watches and flood alerts for weather conditions leading to flooding events. It provides some prospects for improving our forecasting ability for major fluvial events, and our ability, nationally and locally, both to anticipate and react to flooding challenges in the future.
Since the transfer of coastal protection responsibilities to it, the OPW has been liaising closely with Local Authorities with a view to prioritising projects that require immediate measures or studies. Having expended some €676,000 in this area in 2009, I am happy to confirm that OPW is providing some €1.9m this year. This is primarily covering coastal minor works projects, targeted at the mitigation of coastal flood and erosion risk.
Over the past five years, the Government has spent approximately €130 million on flood relief activities. (A further €112 million was spent on maintenance of arterial drainage schemes and collection of hydrometric information.) The mitigation and reduction of flooding remains a top priority, not just of my Office and myself, but of the Government, which is entirely understandable, when one considers the devastation that floods wreaked on individuals, communities and businesses last winter.
The various risk assessment studies upon which the OPW has embarked will greatly assist in our ability to identify areas most likely to be affected by flooding. These plans will inevitably call for further investment in flood defence measures.
While, of course, major defence schemes tend to attract most publicity and public attention, there are many areas of the country that are afflicted by severe localised flooding events that fall outside of the remit of the major flood defence programme. It is important that these areas receive an appropriate response from the State.
Towards this end, the OPW has prioritised a programme, which I first introduced in August 2009, of minor or small-scale flood defence works in local areas, which have been impacted severely by flooding.
Under the programme, a total of €12 million has so far been allocated to local authorities for works and studies this year, and further applications for funding are being received and assessed on an ongoing and rolling basis. In total, 160 small-scale projects in 23 counties have been allocated funding. In allocating the funds, my Office continues to concentrate on areas, where there is a substantial risk to human life, property and infrastructure.
For Co. Cork in 2010, OPW has provided for a number of works which are being carried out in support of the CFRAM programme in this region. In all some €1.84m is being spent across Cork in the planning and improvement of flood mitigation and flood defence measures.
In addition nearly €50m is being spent on major capital works across Cork County. This very significant investment on flood protection includes:
- Mallow North (Complete) - € 22.7M
- Mallow South and West - € 14M
- Fermoy North - € 9M for the first phase.
- Fermoy South Scheme - It is expected that works will commence in the first quarter of 2011, and take 18-24 months to complete.
- Cork City - €0.9M for repairs to Quay walls
- Bandon - Works could commence in 2012.
- Lower Lee (Cork City) - It is hoped that the design of a preferred scheme will be completed towards the end of 2011, which will be brought to public exhibition.
- Midleton/Carrigaline/Ballymakeera - Work is expected to commence before the end of 2010.
For Skibbereen, as some of you no doubt are aware, we have funded an in-depth study of the River Ilen costing some €120,000, in order to develop a full-scale flood relief scheme for the town, similar to that I already announced in January for Bandon. As part of the flood study, OPW will ask the engineering consultants to identify as a matter of urgency any interim and minor works that can brought forward while the full study is underway, that would not subsequently have to be undone as part of a bigger scheme, and these will include the suggestions made locally and further brought to my attention during an Adjournment debate in the Dáil last week, by Deputy Christy Sullivan.
We are now engaged in a comprehensive national data analysis exercise that will underpin the robustness of the flood management-planning programme, which we will complete by December 2015 in its first cycle.
Central to that programme will be the inputs of all the lead stakeholder agencies. In addition to their input, OPW is eager to engage with other stakeholders to ensure that the optimal level of information and expertise is applied to this extensive exercise. This applies at both local and national level. The profile of the National Flood Forum, which you have established here today, will provide an ideal conduit for knowledge and ideas from the level of the citizen and community to inform fully that programme.
There are two other issues, in which OPW have an interest, but not a direct responsibility, the question of what can be done in the case of a small handful of properties that cannot be economically protected, mostly situated in Co. Galway, and the treatment of flood-prone areas by the insurance industry. These matters are engaging the attention of Government.
I followed with close interest, while I was attending a resumed Budget Council in Brussels last Monday, the news coverage of their floods. The question was asked whether a public authority could be sued, and the answer given was that in such exceptional circumstances it could always invoke force majeure. I reject the argument that, regardless of what the natural disaster may be, it should always be possible to find a public authority or agency to blame and then to sue. In a week, in which the IMF has arrived in Dublin, I will not be giving my support to calls that are designed to open up potentially new and limitless areas for compensation from the State and the taxpayer, no matter what private consultancy reports may be commissioned.
The question was also asked why a national emergency was not declared, and the answer was that it involved extra cumbersome procedures that might have hindered rescue work on the ground. I note with interest that in consultation with OPW the ESB are modifying their procedures on an experimental basis at Iniscarra Dam, taking account of the experience last November.
You have made an excellent start here today, and I wish you every success in your endeavours. I will remain heavily interested in future developments in this are in future.