Work on a €35 million flood relief scheme for Clonmel will start early next year, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Mr Tom Parlon promised last night on a visit to the flood-stricken town.
Mr Parlon - who has responsibility for the Office of Public Works - rejected suggestions that it was inaction by himself and the Government which led to this week's flooding in the town.
"We have now a fully planned scheme in place which is planned to go into place in early 2005 and it's around €35 million - it's involved a lot of very convoluted planning and it's just very unfortunate that we've had this flood when we've had it."
Mr Parlon said the delay in starting the original scheme was caused by concerns from the local authorities in Clonmel that dredging the river bed would lead to pollution, as happened in Kilkenny.
The latest scheme will give protection against one in a 100-year flood and will involve no dredging of the river, but rather the use of demountable barriers to stop the Suir from overflowing its banks.
He said he believed that when that protection system was in place, the insurance industry would have to look very seriously at its policy of refusing cover to areas hit by floods in Clonmel.
Mr Parlon said the OPW had begun work on the early warning system. He conceded that initial work on the culverts had not be completed, but he said he had checked with engineering staff in the OPW and they had told him that even if that work had been done, it would not have alleviated Thursday's floods.
He said the Government had paid out €13.5 million in humanitarian aid nationally to the victims of flood damage in 2000 and he would be seeking to obtain large-scale funding for humanitarian aid payments again.
"I don't want to pre-empt a Government's decision, but there is a precedent there and we responded very quickly before and I expect that such is the severity of this situation that the Government will look very, very seriously at this again," he said.
Mr Parlon said that it was "a very frightening situation" for the people of Clonmel, but he said "there's no Minister or Department responsible for avoiding flooding - the best we can do is minimise the effects of it."
Mr Parlon was speaking after local politicians had criticised the Government. Tipperary South Independent TD, Mr Séamus Healy said he was "very annoyed" over the failure of the Government to make the funding available, including a €1 million initial payment which Mr Parlon promised earlier this year.
"Minister Parlon was here in April and he promised that that €1 million would be in place by September and it hasn't happened - he promised a flood alleviation scheme for the town would start this year."
"Minister Parlon said the first phase of the scheme would be completed by the end of the year and it hasn't even started - I believe the total inaction of the Government and the Minister is responsible for the very severe flooding here in Clonmel."
Mayor of Clonmel, Cllr Denis Dunne said some 50 council staff had been working for the past 48 hours along with around 150 Gardaí, Civil Defence, Fire Brigade and Army. He estimated that some 150 people were badly hit by the floods with around 40 families having to be evacuated from their homes after the Suir rose over a metre between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Thursday.
