The Minister for the Environment said today it is difficult to gauge what extent bad planning decisions have contributed to flooding that has devastated many areas in the past week.
John Gormley is visiting the midwest region today to see some of areas worst affected by the past week’s flooding.
“If you look at the board expanse that been flooded, it looks like a huge lake and it’s really a miracle that more people were not affected,” he said after getting an aerial view of the Gort, Ennis and Limerick regions this morning in a helicopter.
“I think that’s a tribute to forward planning and agency approaches to the floods.”
The Minister commended the work of the HSE and local authorities who are co-ordinating emergency measures.
Mr Gormley said that while the way planning decisions are made will have to be looked at to minimise future flood damage in the future, it is “difficult to gauge” at this stage how much they have contributed to the current disaster.
He said climate change would have to be taken into account in future planning.
“Certainly, I’ve seen over last 15 years some bad decision in relation to planning and I think that’s recognised now,” he said. “We’ve tried to rectify that in the context of legislation currently going through Seand Eireann where, for the first time, we recognise climate change considerations have to be part of development plans and the fact that flood risk management plans have to be put in place.
“All of that, I think, will make better for decisions in relation to panning in the future,” Mr Gormley added.