Two flood relief schemes in Kilkenny now commencing through funding by the OPW

Minister of State for the Office of Public Works, Mr. Patrick O’Donovan TD, today announced that flood relief schemes for Freshford and Piltown are now commencing through funding by the Office of Public Works (OPW). 

The OPW is now funding two staff in Kilkenny County Council who are dedicated to managing, jointly with the OPW, flood risk schemes across four communities in Kilkenny.

Funding for two big heritage projects in Kilkenny

This provides the opportunity to pilot together with Kilkenny County Council a new delivery model for flood relief schemes. 

Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council, Cllr. Pat Fitzpatrick, on hearing the announcement, said that 'it will allow the flood relief schemes in both Freshford and Piltown to commence, where the issue of flooding has been ongoing for years'.

"I want to acknowledge the commitment and funding provided by the Office of Public Works for these projects and ongoing projects in Ballyhale and Graignamanagh,” he said.

"People in these communities have been suffering with regular flooding for years and some have experienced devastating damage to their homes and belongings." 

Kilkenny County Council also welcomed today’s announcement by Minister O'Donovan that Freshford and Piltown flood relief schemes are to commence as pilots for the second tranche flood relief schemes.

"OPW Flood Management Plans 2018 identified both Freshford and Piltown as having properties at risk of flooding and Freshford has endured significant recent flood events," they stated.

"This announcement marks the first step in the process of alleviating flooding in both communities who have long suffered from issues associated with flooding.

"The announcement will allow Kilkenny County Council to continue with their ongoing efforts to tackle flooding in the county and allow us to use the experience gained on ongoing schemes, in both Ballyhale and Graignamanagh, to progress these additional schemes."

Minister O’Donovan acknowledged that 'the history and experience of flooding in these communities has brought devastation and is a cause of great concern to the families, business and wider community'.

"Within the current resource constraints, and from lessons learned to date, trialling a new delivery model for Freshford and Piltown will deliver important flood relief measures for these towns and inform the most efficient approach to delivering the next tranche of 60 flood relief schemes nationally," he added.

The Minister highlighted that one of the important lessons from the current delivery model is the time taken to gather the necessary data on the causes of flooding and the landscape of a community at risk.

The pilot will transfer the management of data gathering, as a first step in designing a scheme, from consultant engineers for a single scheme to the local authorities for all the schemes within their areas of responsibility. 

The pilot means data gathering can be scaled up from individual communities to all schemes in a county.

As well as bringing economies of scale, the gathered data can then better inform the prioritisation of schemes and the scope of services required from consultants to design and construct flood relief schemes.