Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2026
524. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the progress made on national climate adaptation measures under the National Development Plan, particularly flood-risk management projects, and expected timelines for completion. [11939/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe OPW is leading the delivery of an ambitious national programme, through the 29 Flood Risk Management Plans developed under the National Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme, to protect against risk from river and coastal flooding.
Nationally, significant progress is being made. To date, the OPW has invested some €580m in 56 completed flood relief schemes, which protect 13,580 properties nationwide and provide an economic benefit in damages avoided estimated to be in the region of €2bn. The OPW strives to expedite and progress capital flood relief works with the minimum delay. Nonetheless, the process is lengthy and detailed and follows a number of stages from feasibility through design, planning, detailed design, construction, and handover.
At this time there are:
• 10 schemes at construction/implementation (Stage 4). These 10 flood relief schemes will protect over 2,800 properties upon completion;
• 5 schemes at Detailed Design/Works Procurement Stage (Stage 3);
• 10 schemes at, or progressing towards, Planning/Development Consent Stage (Stage 2);
• 69 schemes at Scheme Development and Preliminary Design (Stage 1) or Preliminary Business Case; and
• 54 Tranche 2 schemes that were identified in the Flood Risk Management Plans but were not in the first tranche of schemes to progress to design. These are scheduled to be progressed under the National Development Plan to 2030 and a national pilot is informing the most efficient delivery model for these schemes.
All new and ongoing flood relief projects require the preparation of Scheme Adaptation Plans such that the design and implementation of the scheme takes the potential impacts of climate change into account with a view to ensuring that the scheme will provide for, or can be adapted to manage, the likely increases in future flood risk. A programme of work has commenced and is due for completion in 2029, to prepare Scheme Adaptation Plans for previously constructed flood relief schemes to determine what adaptation measures may be required in the future to maintain the required standard of protection.
Since 2009, the OPW provides funding to local authorities through the Minor Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme. This scheme is available to fund localised measures to all communities to manage flood risk from rivers and the sea. This Scheme generally applies where a solution can be readily identified and achieved in a short time frame. The OPW has approved over €70m for some 900 projects that are mitigating flood risk to over 8,000 properties. The Scheme is being updated to ensure, where possible, that any measures proposed are adaptable to climate change.
