A report on the possibility of launching a national flood warning system will not be completed until early next year, it has emerged.
Parts of the country were devastated by flooding late last year, including Cork, Galway, Clare and Tipperary.
Minister of State at the Office of Public Works Martin Mansergh confirmed the study currently under way would examine the “potential benefits” and assess the options for such a warning system.
Answering a parliamentary question from Fine Gael Clare TD Joe Carey, the Minister said the feasibility study would also examine the procedures and infrastructure required for a flood forecasting and flood warning service.
“It is expected that the study will be completed in early 2011. An extensive consultation with the primary stakeholders has already been carried out as a central part of the overall feasibility study.”
Mr Mansergh said that in parallel with the national study, existing catchment-based flood-forecasting systems were being piloted at Mallow and Clonmel and a further assessment was being carried out on the River Lee catchment.
He said the “extensive experience and knowledge” gained from the practical operation of the local systems would be “an invaluable guide” to the study of national requirements. But he said the feasibility of any system would be predicated on the ability to resource its commissioning and ongoing implementation.
Mr Carey said a repeat of the estimated €1 billion worth of flood damage done nationally last year “could occur again this winter because of Government inaction”. He claimed the Minister’s response meant a national flood warning system was several years away.
“Last year’s flood damage caused enormous hardship throughout the country and resulted in a massive cost to the economy both in terms of damage done and days of business lost," said Mr Carey.
Mr Carey noted a recent study by NUI Galway lecturer and climate change expert, Kieran Hickey, which said he said showed the majority of the damage could have been largely avoided had a proper warning system been put in place.
Mr Hickey said the Government had done “nothing of significance” to prepare for another weather disaster as it approached the first anniversary of last winter’s “havoc”.
“Incredibly we now have some families who are facing into a second Christmas without being able to return to their homes,” Mr Carey said.
“Businesses in other parts of the country are still closed because of ongoing insurance issues. The Kingsley Hotel in Cork for example has only recently been able to look towards an opening date because of issues with insurance related to the flooding.”
Mr Carey said it was “unacceptable” to allow a situation where the first people learned of flooding danger was when they found “furniture floating in their homes or waters coming in through their front door”.
He called for the fast-tracking of the current feasibility study and for the publication of a report by the end of the year. Mr Carey also said funding for the implementation and ongoing maintenance of such a system should be ring-fenced.
The Government must also ensure that local and national rivers, particularly those in areas prone to flooding, were dredged.
In July, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment published its own report on the management of severe weather events in Ireland. It said many people’s lives were negatively affected by the weather events of last year and “to extents that could and should have been avoided”.
It said there was a duty to avoid the same result in future and that this must be “the singular focus of the State and its agencies, irrespective of the specific role of different structures and parties”.
It recommended that the Department of the Environment should complete and publish its review of the management of severe weather events by November 1st this year.
The OPW had already commissioned the ongoing feasibility study by the time this recommendation was published.