FLOODING IN some areas after the recent heavy rainfall was blamed yesterday on the failure to clean and maintain rivers and streams, rather than on development on flood plains.
Fine Gael TD for Cavan- Monaghan Seymour Crawford said the Government's failure to maintain the country's waterways was "the single most important factor behind the recent flooding".
However, the Office of Public Works (OPW) said about €20 million each year was spent on a waterway maintenance scheme, including rivers in the Cavan-Monaghan constituency.
Mr Crawford said he was "not blaming the Government for the rain", but claimed there had been no maintenance of waterways in his constituency since the mid-1980s.
"While there may have been individual cases where development should not have taken place, the vast majority of flooding in my own constituency of Cavan-Monaghan is a direct result of the lack of any maintenance work on rivers and their tributaries since the mid-1980s. These rivers and streams had been maintained years before this, when the country had far less money to spend, by local people during the winter months, to clear out fallen trees and other debris."
An OPW spokesman said it had completed a series of flood-relief schemes, including on the river Nore in Kilkenny, the river Tolka and the river Dodder in Dublin and several other rivers. These areas had not flooded after recent heavy rain as a result of these schemes, he said.
"There are other towns where we are on site with similar programmes, including Clonmel, Ennis and Mallow and hopefully by the end of the year we will be in Fermoy as well.
"OPW spends in the region of €20 million per annum on maintenance of the rivers, including the Blackwater. We are happy that there is a programme of works that continues to be rolled out on rivers such as the ones in the deputy's constituency."
In Wicklow, the chairman of the local authority, Fine Gael councillor Derek Mitchell, said recent flooding was down to drainage issues and not development on flood plains. "Around Greystones, there were about 10 problem areas and at most one was due to building on flood plains," he said.
A spokesman for Wicklow County Council said it was preparing a report on the flooding last weekend due to "unprecedented rainfall". "This report will help identify areas that may need drainage improvement works, as well as identifying other potential solutions to the problem."
Some streets in Carlow town remained closed yesterday after severe flooding at the weekend.
Iarnród Éireann said delays on the Dublin to Belfast line at Portadown would continue today due to flooding damage.