125 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for Finance when phase three of the flood relief scheme for the Mulcair, County Limerick, will start in view of the fact that phase one is complete and phase two is at a fairly advanced stage; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that on completion of phase two very serious flooding is likely to be caused in the main channel of the Mulcair by a substantially increased flow of water from the tributaries comprised in the phase two work; and if his attention has further been drawn to the urgency of the situation. [14247/99]

127 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Finance if work has begun on the design of phase three of the flood relief for the Mulcair River; if not, when the design scheme will commence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14271/99]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 125 and 127 together.

Two flood relief schemes, viz. Ballymackeogh, Newport, and Cappamore, which are situated in the Mulkear River Catchment, were included for priority consideration among nine areas on the national drainage-flood relief programme. While these schemes have been reached in that programme in so far as the Ballymackeogh project is practically complete and that for Cappamore is currently under construction, the Commissioners of Public Works advise me that there is no question of the latter scheme being the cause of downstream flooding.

In view of existing commitments to the other schemes on the national priority drainage-flood relief programme there are no proposals at present to consider any other schemes in the Mulkear catchment.

126 Mr. Kenneally asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown of the estimated expenditure of £500,000 in County Waterford in 1999 for flood relief in respect of inland waterways; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14268/99]

The Office of Public Works is currently reviewing flood defence and flood alleviation measures for the city of Waterford and its environs. It is intended that up to £500,000 would be expended on the engineering, environmental and other specialist investigations necessary to devise environmentally acceptable and economically viable proposals for the alleviation of flooding problems at Scotch Quay, Poleberry and the Tramore Road areas of the city and enable works to be undertaken this year.

I adverted in my reply to Question No. 183 on Wednesday, 5 May 1999 to the impacts, which the long lead time in bringing schemes to works stage and also the changes or alterations, which may be found necessary after the exhibition process and during the works stage, may have on the proposed time schedules for individual projects and their effects on the corresponding levels of expenditure on those projects in any one year.