I acknowledge the remedial and interim flood relief works that have been undertaken in communities such as Inchigeelagh and Ballingeary. There is continued pressure in those communities. There is a continued threat of flooding from the Lee and the Bunsheelin. There is a need to advance a long-term project. There are plans in place that would give protection from flooding. Will the Minister of State outline the timeline for advancing the second tranche of this project?

To establish which communities are at risk from significant flood events, in 2018, the OPW completed the largest study of flood risk ever undertaken by the State. The OPW catchment-based flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, programme was undertaken by engineering consultants on behalf of the OPW, working in partnership with the local authorities. The CFRAM programme studied 80% of Ireland's primary flood risk and identified solutions to protect against 95% of that risk.

The Government has committed €1.3 billion to the delivery of flood relief schemes over the lifetime of the national development plan. These schemes will protect approximately 23,000 properties in communities that are under threat from river and coastal flood risk. Since 2018, as part of a phased approach, the delivery of funding under the national development plan has allowed the OPW to treble work on flood relief schemes through partnerships with local authorities. As a result, some 100 flood relief schemes are at the design, planning or construction phase at this time. In 2025, over €100 million was spent on delivering flood relief schemes. This is a record high in annual expenditure and reflects progress in delivering flood relief schemes nationally.

It is not feasible to deliver all flood relief schemes concurrently due to constraints on specialised engineering skills in the OPW, local authorities and the consultancy market. As such, the flood relief delivery programme was divided into two tranches. The initial focus was on tranche 1 schemes and those already in the delivery pipeline.

The prioritisation of the first tranche of scheme was based on three criteria: the scale of the project, the capacity to deliver a national programme and the maximised return on investment by reference to property numbers.

Work will soon commence on a plan for progressing these tranche 2 schemes. A number of initiatives are under way, including the OPW piloting a new delivery model for flood relief schemes through tranche 2 schemes in counties Kilkenny and Donegal, which is referred to as the tranche 2 pilot. While it is anticipated that works to progress tranche 2 schemes will commence in the lifetime of the national development plan, the implementation of the scheme will continue post 2030.

Ballingeary and Inchigeelagh are projects within tranche 2. The CFRAM programme identified a viable project for Ballingeary, which will protect 46 properties, and these will benefit from the implementation of the flood relief scheme. Similarly, CFRAM identified a viable project for Inchigeelagh, which will protect 28 properties.

Both Inchigeelagh and Ballingeary did interim works such as vegetation clearance along the river banks and other maintenance along the river, and they will take a certain amount of the pressure off. There is ongoing overall concern, however, about what will happen if we have more weather like what we had this week, and there have been other incidents when the flood came up either from the Lee or, in Ballingeary's case, from the Bunsheelin. There is a need for the longer and wider programme to be done.

On top of the flood pressure, there is also the anxiety that people and the council feel whereby if they do interim works, it might in some way or another deprioritise the bigger project or that it would slip down the radar. Can we get reassurance that this will not happen and that Ballingeary and Inchigeelagh will be a priority project for tranche 2 of the works?

I fully appreciate the Deputy's sentiments, and he has outlined the money we have provided to the local authority to do work in both of those areas. The change I have made to the minor works scheme, increasing the figure from €750,000 to €2 million, allows local authorities to come in under the scheme, but I have also made changes to allow interim measures. The Deputy asked whether, if local authorities look for funding from the Department through either the minor works scheme or the interim measures scheme, it will interfere with the overall delivery. No, it will not. I hear that a lot from local authorities. People ask whether, if they draw down funding, it will interfere with the delivery of the overall scheme, and it will not.

The idea behind interim measures, while we are awaiting the completion of an overall scheme, is to help local authorities, but most important, to protect the community that is affected. I announced this year that every local authority is to receive funding for river blockages and vegetation clearance. I know the Deputy's county has done extremely well and has done work in the areas that he referred to, but I need every local authority to step up to that mark. Money is available for interim measures. I need the local authorities to come in and draw it down.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. Ar an gcéad dul síos, tá roinnt oibre déanta ar an Laoi agus ar Abha Bhun Sílinn cheana féin leis na géaga a ghearradh anuas agus an abhainn a ghlanadh. Is faoiseamh é sin ach tá gá le mórobair i mBéal Átha an Ghaorthaidh. Is ábhar buartha é do mhuintir an bhaile. Teastaíonn uathu go mbeadh an dul chun cinn á dhéanamh leis an obair seo. An féidir soiléiriú a thabhairt ar cé chomh tapa nó cathain a mbeidh an obair sin ag teacht chun cinn chun faoiseamh a thabhairt do mhuintir Bhéal Átha an Ghaorthaidh ón tuile?

I want to focus on Ballingeary and the wider tranche 2 works that could be done there. The interim works have been helpful and do relieve some of the flood threat as well as the pressure and stress felt by people locally. Is there any indication of a timeline? How soon will tranche 2 be progressed to make the bigger flood defences available for the people of Ballingeary?

Again, I am working on a plan to deliver on tranche 2, but the change I made to increase the €750,000 figure to €2 million allows local authorities to advance works to help while we are waiting for this to come on board. For the last two years, I have heard in this House that the €750,000 was not enough and that local authorities were breaking the schemes in twos and threes. I changed that threshold to allow them to come in. Regarding the two areas the Deputy is talking about, it is on the local authorities to come to my Department. We will facilitate them, but we need them to come in first. We are working on a plan to deliver on tranche 2 schemes. I hope to work on that over the next number of months because it is important to people out there. A lot of people have been calling and looking for tranche 2, but in order to bring it forward, I have made the changes to allow them to come in for funding for interim measures.