51. Deputy Noel McCarthy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to provide an update on the rollout of the east Cork individual property protection scheme to date. [74724/26]

In October 2024, the OPW approved €5.8m in funding for Cork County Council to make Individual Property Protection (IPP) (i.e. flood barriers/gates) available free of charge to an estimated 923 home and business owners who were so badly impacted by Storm Babet in Midleton (749) and East Cork (174), including Castlemartyr, Mogeely, Killeagh, Rathcormac and Youghal.

The scheme opened for applications on 7th October 2024 to all households and businesses in the affected areas. Applications for the scheme were accepted until 18th November 2024.  Cork County Council received a total of 721 valid applications.

Cork County Council arranged for an independent assessment by engineering consultants of the suitability of the properties for IPP and subsequently the type of IPP products required (e.g. expandable flood gates, slot in flood gates, etc.). These property surveys were completed for all properties deemed eligible for inclusion in the scheme early in 2025.

Delivery of flood gates to suitable properties began in mid-April 2025. Ancillary building works have been carried out by contractors working on behalf of Cork County Council since June 2025. This is the largest such scheme ever delivered in Ireland. The delivery programme has experienced some scheduling challenges arising from procurement and supply chain factors. Cork County Council continues to work closely with contractors and suppliers to progress the scheme and maintain momentum towards completion.

Those businesses and homes that installed appropriate IPP after Storm Babet and prior to the date the IPP scheme went live (7th October 2024) were eligible to apply for the scheme and have an engineering assessment completed by Cork County Council, to inform a ‘retrospective’ reimbursement. Cork County Council has processed and paid for 45 such retrospective applications.

This IPP scheme forms part of the Council’s emergency response plans for these areas. The scheme requires some 2,000 flood barriers, and a significant number of these need civil works to have them installed. Cork County Council has advised that the scheme has now reached 90% completion in terms of barriers delivered and 80% of properties are now fully protected, with substantial completion anticipated in November 2026.

A quarterly update by Cork County Council on the Midleton and East Cork Individual Property Protection scheme was presented at the recent Midleton Flood Committee meeting on the 15th October 2026.