The construction of flood defences around the State is being hampered by the time local authorities are taking to agree on local strategy, the Minister with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Mr Martin Cullen, has said.
He said the "money was there" for local authorities to draw down for building flood defences. Last year his office put aside £10 million to address flood risk around the State, he said, adding that the OPW was the agency which devised schemes for the protection of areas identified as at risk of flood damage.
"We work with local authorities to develop schemes which we think would solve flooding, in consultation with local engineers and our own."
He said delays were arising because of the consultation process. "What we do is present to the local authority a number of options which are looked at in detail and go to public exhibition. Every time there is something that makes local opinion unhappy we have to go back to the drawing table and carry out further Environmental Impact Statements."
Pointing to the British experience, he said where flood protection measures were offered there had been objections from local residents which had left numerous areas defenceless.
A number of schemes have been completed, he added, in counties Meath, Galway and Cork. The biggest delay has been in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, where the consultation process has been in train for two years.
Local residents and councillors "were unhappy at the time" when the OPW first laid out its plans there for flood defence. "I explained to them at the time that the experts saw this as the best possible solution. . .Since then we have been discussing it back and forth with their engineers. We are now going to tender there, but it took two years to get there."
Emphasising that people were entitled to object and engage fully in the consultation process, he said his office would not impose solutions. In May 1999 the OPW presented a number of options to the local authority in Clonmel, Co Tipperary - site of some of the worst flooding yesterday. However the authority submitted alternative plans and further EIS had to be carried out.
"At the end of the day, these walls and barriers which people may not like the look of, are flood defences," said the Minister. "People have to strike a balance as to what they will allow into their areas for protection and the panoramic views that might be impinged upon."
Cian McCormack writes from Clonmel: Local representatives in Clonmel disputed Mr Cullen's claim that arguments at local authority level had delayed development of the flood defence system for the town.
Yesterday, the Mayor, Councillor Brian O'Donnell, claimed the Minister's assertions were untrue and that Clonmel Corporation had not delayed the development. Since December last, a series of letters between Clonmel Corporation and the OPW put responsibility firmly in the hands of the OPW.
Last year the corporation examined a number of plan options and accepted one devised by the borough engineer. The OPW replied to the corporation last June saying that because resources were concentrated on the Carrick-on-Suir scheme, work on the Clonmel scheme would not commence for a number of months.
The OPW had planned to forward a final plan for approval by the corporation by autumn 2000 with copies of their flood plan being put on public display by the end of the year.
A source in Clonmel Corporation confirmed that protective measures are not drawn up. In a letter from the OPW to Clonmel Corporation dated September 15th, the OPW told the corporation there is "no final decision made in relation to final designs for relief work in Clonmel".
The letter further states: "It is not possible to state when the final design is to be completed."
Bridges and roads in the town were out of bounds to motorists yesterday while as many as 50 people have been evacuated from their homes.
Mr Eddie Cooney, co-ordinator of the Clonmel emergency flood plan, said: "Most people are confined to their houses because of the water and gardai have closed roads in the interests of public safety.
"Evacuation is being done by the Army, Civil Defence and some families," added Mr Cooney.
Mr John O'Brien, whose home at Spring Gardens became immersed in water early on Monday morning, said: "It is heart-breaking. I have never in my life seen water inside my house. This is 17 years of my life gone at this stage. My whole house is ruined."
Meanwhile, emergency services continued to distribute sandbags throughout the town yesterday.
