The Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has welcomed cross party support for the Aontú PMB tackling the flood crisis in the Dáil today. An Teachta Tóibín stated:
There is palpable anger building up in many communities over the glacial speed of flood defence construction. People are also furious that the first time they know about a flood its when their homes and businesses are inundated.
I welcome the cross party support for the Aontú Motion today, but not opposing a PMB is not worth a hill of beans unless it’s actioned by the government. Its a well-used cynical trick of the government to say yes in the Dáil and simply do nothing.
The construction of flood defences is drowning in bureaucracy and red tape. Many flood defences are taking 20 and 30 years from concept to completion. I mentioned Enniscorthy, Midleton, Clontarf, Galway, Sandymount and others.
Many of these areas have had multiple floods with hundreds of millions worth of damage and yet there is still no planning applications in place. Indeed there are many examples were life and limb are under real treat. I believe that it is only a matter of time before life will be lost.
The Minister mentioned 100 programmes that are in planning currently. He defended the role of the planning process. This is a massive mistake. The key issue here is, licencing, permitting, tendering and judicial reviews are taking longer here than in the vast majority of other EU countries. This is undeniable. Its doing serious damage. Its why Enniscorthy was a lake last week. Its why the M50 is a car park every day. Its why the National Children’s Hospital has cost €2.24b and is still not open. Planning applications often need multiple variations for different licencing and permitting. Vexatious objections are too easy. Planning applications can need vans to transport them they are so big. The whole process needs to be streamlined.
We welcome the statement by Minister Boxer Moran that there will be zero tolerance for future building on flood defences. However, the government and councils have allowed for thousands of houses to be built on flood plains and ‘at risk’ areas. In these areas the government has a responsibility to help cover the cost of people who are suffering. We saw last week cars nearly covered by water. Cars were floating in some situations. These families need help with the cost of, what is likely to be, the second most expensive purchase in their lives.
Delays in rolling out flood forecast to the general public are unforgivable. It already exists. All that is needed is a decision.
My worry here is that, as the media cycle moves on, so will the political system and we will find ourselves in the same place next winter”. CRIOCH
That Dáil Éireann:
notes that:
— increased flooding is destroying property, causing hundreds of millions of euros of damage, and putting lives at risk;
— communities are waiting, in some cases for decades, for flood defences, protection and amelioration projects to be built;
— the delivery of flood defences is dangerously slow or grinding to a complete halt, with planning, licensing, permitting, tendering and the delivery of judicial reviews being slower in Ireland than in most of the European Union;
— flood forecasting has been available in the State for the last 10 years, but has not been made available to the public; and
— flood campaigners who have sought flood forecasts have had to contact county councils in order to get key life-saving information; and
calls on the Government to:
— immediately make flood forecasts available to the public through Met Éireann;
— introduce push notifications for flood warnings in local areas that have a significant threat of flooding;
— set up weather stations in mountain areas where the level of rainfall has a significant impact on river catchments;
— adequately staff planning departments in city and county councils;
— adequately staff An Coimisiún Pleanála;
— reform the planning process by ensuring that vexatious planning objections are no longer allowed, and objectors who do not have a geographic or a material interest in a project should not be allowed to object to a planning application for a flood defence or flood alleviation plan where life and livelihoods are under threat;
— take planning applications for flood defences and flood amelioration projects, where life and livelihoods are threatened, out of local authorities where blockages exist, and create a fast-tracked national planning process for these projects, and this will help flood defence schemes that affect numerous counties;
— simplify planning applications and ensure that only one standardised planning application is necessary for all planning, permitting, licensing and regulatory authorities;
— rebalance the planning process where habitat and Special Areas of Conservation planning conditions exist, in favour of protecting human life and livelihoods that are threatened by flooding;
— expedite public consultations where life and livelihoods are threatened by flooding;
— roll out nature-based solutions and compensate farmers upstream on river catchments to reduce flooding;
— end construction on flood plains;
— properly staff the court system, so that judicial reviews are dealt with in a speedy fashion;
— streamline the judicial review process by removing time-consuming procedures; and
— review the lack of financial supports for those who cannot get insurance for cars and other costly possessions with a view to supporting these families.
