276. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation his plans to conduct a review of the Arterial Drainage Act 1945. [47611/26]

The Arterial Drainage Bill was enacted in 1945 and was aimed at improving land for agricultural purposes and mitigating flooding. The legislation was amended in 1995 to extend the powers of the Commissioners of Public Works to undertake drainage works on a more localised level rather than the previous focus on large-scale, catchment-wide schemes. The legislation was most recently amended in 2019 through S.I. No. 472/2019 which transposed the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive for the purposes of the Act.

As part of ongoing work in my Department in the context of accelerating infrastructure my officials have reviewed elements of the Arterial Drainage Act in order to ensure the proper and timely functioning of the relevant consent processes. I received Government approval earlier this year to commence drafting of the Arterial Drainage (Amendment) Bill and this work is underway. The intention of the bill will be to shorten the timelines for consent decisions by transferring responsibility for the consent process to An Coimisiún Pleanála and through the introduction of statutory timelines for the completion of assessments.

Officials from my Department have briefed the Joint Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery on 13th May 2026 to allow for engagement with elected representatives on the subject. Work on the draft legislation is ongoing including the necessary engagement with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.