Address by Minister Martin Mansergh, TD, at the Galway East/Galway West Conference

Posted on 24/04/10 by Martin Mansergh

I am very pleased to be here at the Galway East/Galway West Fianna Fáil Constituency Conference. Of all the gateways designated in the National Spatial Strategy, none fulfils its function better than Galway in the Western region, a neighbour of my county across the bridge at Portumna, even if not of my constituency. Last summer, I visited Victoria Lock in the company of the IFA, and had the satisfaction for once in my life of seeing the Northernmost tip of my county, a verdant grazing meadow beside the River Brosna, and of looking out on the island in the river Shannon that marks the meeting point of the three counties Offaly, Galway and Tipperary, and three provinces.

Galway has long been able to boast strong Fianna Fáil representation, Minister for Social Protection, Eamon O Cuiv, and Deputies of long experience Frank Fahey, Michéal Kitt and Noel Treacy, all of whom have served as Ministers or Ministers of State, and with whom I have close dealings, particularly in recent times in relation to the exceptionally bad flooding experienced in the county from Gort to Claregalway and Ballinasloe last November and December. The Government also has the support of independent Galway Deputy Noel Grealish.

I will first talk about transport. I came here this morning and will be returning this afternoon by the Western Rail corridor, from Limerick Junction, two miles outside Tipperary town, and 15 minutes from home on the farm. Part of Fr. Michéal McGreal’s vision was to link up West and North-West with the South-East. Personally, I am delighted to be able to travel by train from outside Tipperary town not just to Limerick and Ennis, but to Galway, where the station right in the city centre on Eyre Square is due for major redevelopment. A great deal of vision and determination by the promoters of the Western Rail Corridor was required over a period to overcome the natural resistance from the Department of Finance, not to mention some economists, who seem to think that public transport policy can be reduced to private buses, and who don’t seem to think that passenger consumer choice is such a good idea, when the choice is between rail and road.

Events of the last couple of weeks have shown the vital importance of having alternative transport systems. We have been warned many times about the possibility of future energy shortages and high oil prices, but, independent of that, it is never going to be easy to access or exit quickly and conveniently city centres at peak times by private car. I know there is a determination to make the Western Rail Corridor a success, so that there is every incentive to move on the phase 2 connecting up to Tuam and Claremorris. There have also of course been great improvements in the quality and frequency of the Dublin-Galway rail service. We are also fortunate, again part of the Fianna Fáil vision, to have the West coast regional airports from Derry and Donegal to Sligo to Knock, to Galway, Shannon and Farranfore, providing added connectivity both to the capital and other airports abroad. The number of mainland regional airports is one of the differences between Ireland and Scotland, countries of roughly the same size and population. Communications are absolutely vital to us as an island country with no tunnel to either the continent or Great Britain.

One of the main positive legacies of the Celtic Tiger era and of a quarter of a century of mainly Fianna Fáil-led governments will be the vast improvements in our transport infrastructure. We were fortunate that it was well advanced, before the recession hit in 2008. At the end of this year, the radial motorway network will be complete, as the M4/M6 Dublin to Galway road already is. Considerable priority is also being given to the Atlantic Corridor, with most progress being made on the Limerick to Galway section. When complete, it will connect Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford, with an important crossbar section on the N24 between Limerick and Waterford, to begin with the Tipperary by-pass. Obviously, there is still important work to be done in identifying the complete route of the outer Galway by-pass, so that it is as easy and quick to traverse the outskirts of Galway city, as it is now in the case of Cork.

Road improvements have, along with other measures, undoubtedly contributed to the sharp and welcome reduction in road deaths and an easing in the cost of motor insurance, which is also assisted by the existence of the PIAB.

The NRA are also conducting a survey of national secondary routes, many of which, such as the road to Clifden, lead to an important tourism hub.

Weather did considerable damage to roads in many parts of the country this last winter. Much of the available road funding has to be concentrated on repairing and restoring the surface improvement in badly affected places, taking advantage of the mainly dry weather of recent weeks. Although, for financial and other reasons, there will be both a shift in emphasis on transport spending more towards public transport and a substantial reduction in its overall level over the remaining life of the Government, we have established a good base for further improvements.

I always spend some of my summer holiday with extended family, either in Galway or Mayo, or in Kerry, and have been doing so for each of the last 50 years. The West in the broadest sense of the term from Donegal to West Cork is the finest place in the world for people, Irish or otherwise, to recharge their batteries, with all the comforts and amenities there. One of the attractions is the ability with ferry services to visit the islands, my favourite being Inisbofin off the Galway coast. I would like to compliment Minister Eamon O Cuiv for all he has done over many years to improve life on the islands, something that was also dear to my former boss, Taoiseach Charles Haughey.

When I was appointed Minister of State with special responsibility for OPW, my brother, Nicholas, who is a senior planner with Cork County Council, advised me, ‘You’ve got to figure out quickly where the disasters are likely to come from. In your case, it’s obvious – flooding’. So it has proved, with bad floods in the Newcastle West, Arklow, Carlow, and North Dublin in the summer of 2008, Clonmel in January 2009, and much more extensive parts of the country in November/December 2009, with parts of Galway/Cork and the Shannon basin from Carrick-on-Shannon through Athlone and Co. Roscommon down to Clare and Limerick particularly badly affected. Miraculously, and long may it continue, there have been some near-misses, but no loss of life, unlike in England and even more recently in France.

Undoubtedly, there has been a history of periodic and sometimes quite severe flooding in places recorded back to the 18th century, made worse in certain instances by recent physical development and planning, a problem addressed in new guidelines for flood plains issued by the Minister for the Environment and myself last December. There has also been a recent perceptible increase in the intensity of rainfall adding to the underlying problem, which may be an indicator of climate change.

In late November, on my way one Saturday to a conference in Donegal, I walked in boots through a low-lying and flooded part of Gort at around midnight with Noel Treacy, and toured the badly flooded area and houses around Claregalway the following morning with Frank Fahey. I returned for a day in January to visit Ballinasloe, where works are now underway.

Many people and businesses were very badly affected, and there is a real fear of an early return of such floods, despite there being, on paper at least, a relatively small risk of that happening in an intermediate period. We introduced mid-2009 a minor flood and coastal relief scheme, on the basis of projects put forward by city and county councils, with a first round of projects approved in early November, and another round this Spring and a further round coming in June and July. There are also major defence works under construction in certain towns, including Ennis, with all the evidence being so far that they work. OPW last month was appointed by Statutory Instrument the lead authority for the purposes of implementing the EU Flood Directive, which requires other agencies to cooperate in drawing up flood-risk management plans, on all river catchments around the country, including the Shannon and the Suck. While protecting people in homes, businesses, villages and towns is our first priority, we also have to be concerned about the social impact of prolonged and unseasonal flooding on farmland.

However tempting it may be, it is not possible, nor would it be honest, to give absolute assurances that any steps can be taken so that such incidents can never happen again. Last weekend on a family visit to Cumbria, I visited towns such as Carlisle and Cockermouth, where flood defences had been overwhelmed and indeed fatalities occurred in 2005 and 2009, though new defences were not damaged. I took the opportunity of a St. Patrick’s Day visit to the Netherlands to talk to the Dutch water management authorities, who have more experience in dealing with what for them is an existential problem over the centuries.

I will be coming back on Monday to spend the whole day in Galway with local Deputies and communities to discuss the outstanding problems and to review the progress in dealing with them. I will be visiting Mayo at the end of the week to discuss a variety of matters in my brief, including decentralisation, flooding, heritage, and opening the Heinrich Böll memorial weekend in Achill next Friday. The West has been an inspiration to many inside and outside the country. My mother used to come every week in her ‘70s to paint for a week in Roundstone with the Kenneth Webb School. The solitary recluse Ludwig Wittgenstein lived in what is now the youth hostel in Little Killary in the late 1940s, when he was writing his famous Philosophical Investigations.

I would like to go into some more detail about what we are planning in Galway at the moment to prevent or mitigate further flooding.

A Joint OPW / Galway County Working Group was set up following the November 2009 flooding to identify flood mitigation works that could be taken forward quickly. As a result of this process, more than 80 applications for funding have been submitted by Galway County Council to date under the Minor Works scheme initiated by OPW last year. Following review of these applications, 18 proposals totalling €773, 450 have already been approved under the initial allocation from this scheme for 2010.

A number of the other applications are still being assessed by the OPW in consultation with the Local Authority, and further decisions in relation to them are expected to be announced shortly. It would be open to the Council to submit further applications for minor works over the remainder of the year. The OPW has also appointed consultants to develop proposals for substantial works at locations on the Dunkellin and Claregalway Rivers, and their reports are expected in July.

Primary responsibility for the evaluation and meeting of housing needs is a matter for the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the relevant housing authorities. Following severe flooding in South Galway in 1995, the Government authorised a once-off home relocation scheme for those affected. It was decided that the OPW would administer the funds provided by D/Finance for this scheme. No such scheme has been introduced arising from subsequent flood events. The question of implementing a new scheme would be a policy issue and would require a Government Decision. The Minister for Finance has indicated that there are no plans to introduce such a scheme at present. There are a number of properties at risk in the Gort area, for which viable mitigation measures are nevertheless difficult to identify.

A comprehensive programme to manage flood risk in the River Shannon catchment is being addressed through the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme that is being undertaken under the direction of the Office of Public Works. A pilot study for the River Lee Catchment Area was published in February.

The CFRAM studies are comprehensive catchment-based studies, which focus on and identify areas at risk from flood events for a range of severities. The studies produce a prioritised plan of structural and non-structural measures and actions for dealing with areas, where the risk is significant, to ensure that all flood risk factors are identified and managed in a coordinated way.

The Shannon FRAM study, which is expected to be initiated in mid-2010, will involve consultation with all of the main stakeholders, including the public, the ESB, Waterways Ireland, National Parks and Wildlife Service and relevant Local Authorities.

The FRAM programme meets the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive and the EU Floods Directive, which provide for a framework for a coordinated approach to the management of river catchment systems. The Floods Directive has been transposed into national law recently. The OPW has been designated as the Competent Authority for implementing the requirements of the Directive. This legislation will reinforce the role of OPW in coordinating the management of the CFRAM programme, and require the active cooperation of associated bodies, where a clear and credible need for protective measures has been established and effective proposals put forward. Obviously, due weight has to be given to the priority to protect people, homes and businesses in reaching a common understanding how water management is to be conducted in different seasons and risk conditions, recreating different functions.

With regard to Claregalway, in March this year the OPW appointed consultants to undertake a study on the Clare River. The extent of the Study will be on the Clare River from Lough Corrib to Corofin and on the Abbert River from its outfall to Ballyglunin.

A number of engineering measures are to be developed to form the basis of a proposed alleviation option (improvement works) to eliminate, or reduce flooding in the study area from a similar sized event as the November 2009 flood. Engineering measures to be considered by the consultants will include, but not be limited to, the following;

• Replacement or provision of flood eye at Claregalway bridge with associated channel works upstream and downstream;

• Replacement of Crusheen bridge and associated works;

• Replacement or alterations to road or access bridges on the local tributaries and associated upstream and downstream channel works;

• River excavation measures (deepening and or widening), particularly at critical locations and stretches of channel, where conveyance would be significantly enhanced: this measure is likely to apply to the Abbert River, and may also apply to the local tributaries;

• Provision of protection to houses and roads in the Caherlea and Ardskea More areas and R347. While this may result in proposals for local embanking and sluicing etc., account must be taken of the possible negating impacts of karst conditions in the area. Karst is a distinctive topography in which the landscape is largely shaped by the dissolving action of water on carbonate rock i.e. the Burren.

The study will take three months to complete. OPW will continue to liaise with interested parties in relation to its scope.

OPW has recently carried out work to gates at the bridge in Ballinasloe in order to increase river flow through the town centre.

An application from Galway County Council for funding (€9,000) to engage consultants to design a localised flood defence for the Derrymullen, Ballinasloe, was accepted in the initial allocation of funds under the Minor Works scheme. A number of measures to upgrade culverts, regrade streams, and construct channels have been approved, and works are underway. The Council have also submitted applications for works at Derrymullen and at East Bridge. These proposals, which are estimated to cost in the region of €0.5m (subject to tender prices), meet the criteria of the scheme, and will eligible for allocations in the 2nd tranche of funding.

Ballinasloe will be one of the areas that the Shannon CFRAM, which will be initiated in mid-2010, will focus on to produce a comprehensive approach to managing flood risk in the longer term.

Insurance or reinsurance will be facilitated by the carrying out of works, particularly in areas where flooding has been a regular occurrence. More generally, an application has been made by the Department of Finance for special EU aid, but the outcome of that is not yet known. There are many consequences, not just in terms of physical works, that have to be addressed and attended to, and, even if there are no further major floods for the next while, there is a large agenda of works for years to come. Last November gave us some indication of the potential scale of the problem.