Flood relief schemes will be fast tracked, pledges T\u00e1naiste<\/p>\n
THE new Critical Infrastructure Bill will specifically address the fast tracking of flood relief schemes, the T\u00e1naiste has pledged to the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
Simon Harris said: \u201cHomes have to be at the top of the pecking order when it comes to our planning system.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cSometimes that doesn’t always seem to be the way. We hear about the freshwater mussel delay in the flood relief scheme in Enniscorthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s the people of Enniscorthy that I’m concerned about. Or critical infrastructure bill will specifically address the fast tracking of flood relief schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The weather event that many communities are experiencing is still ongoing, he said, with particular warnings for Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow and Waterford.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is more rain forecast over the coming days, and flooding will continue to be a risk due to saturated ground conditions and very elevated river levels,\u201d the T\u00e1naiste said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019d continue to urge everyone to exercise caution. Conditions can change quickly, so monitor the Met \u00c9ireann forecasts, but also follow the advice of local authorities.\u201d
Government financial schemes of assistance are now both open, he said, with that in relation to homeowners under the Department of Social Protection and that for businesses under the Department of Enterprise.<\/p>\n
To Opposition criticism if preparedness failures, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t accept the assertion that nothing\u2019s been done in relation to flood relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, I would point to the significant progress and money that\u2019s been spent right across the country delivering flood relief schemes that are really helping protect homes, communities, and businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he said he accepted it was taking \u201cfar too long to deliver far too many.\u201d
Mr Harris said \u20ac51 million was committed to the Enniscorthy flood defence project under the National Development Plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now need to see how we can accelerate flood relief schemes. We published the accelerating infrastructure task force report just before Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be bringing into this as a Critical Infrastructure Bill, where we have to recognise that while environmental issues and individual views matter, there\u2019s also something else that matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s called the public good.\u201d
But Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn said Government ministers were allergic to measurables, \u201cin case they can be held to account.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are 46 flood schemes at design stage while communities suffer, he said. \u201cMidleton 2023: Storm Babette — 600 homes and 300 businesses flooded. Damage estimated at \u20ac200 million. People came within a hair\u2019s breadth of losing their lives in Midleton.<\/p>\n
\u201cStorm Frank devastated the exact same area in 2015, when flood defences were promised with a completion date of 2020. Today, the planning application has still not even been submitted.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cEnniscorthy has been waiting for 25 years for protection. In 2014, \u20ac55 million was allocated to flood relief schemes. But this week Enniscorthy is a lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cPractically every single piece of infrastructure development in this country is grinding to a halt.\u201d
It was all because the Government has \u201cthe slowest planning, licensing, permitting, tendering and judicial reviews in the whole of the European Union,\u201d Mr T\u00f3ib\u00edn said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA national flood forecast and warning service was announced in 2016. Ten years later, none of these flood forecasts are being made available to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senan Molony<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flood relief schemes will be fast tracked, pledges T\u00e1naiste THE new Critical Infrastructure Bill will specifically address the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,898,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-272988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}