Flood forecasting system delayed due to problems recruiting expert staff

A new state-of-the-art flood forecasting system has been delayed because of difficulties in sourcing expert staff, it has emerged.

A meeting of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard there had been a delay in the progression of projects including a new flood forecasting database.

It comes as Midleton in east Cork, and other areas devastated by Storm Babet flooding last week, are facing repair and clean-up costs of well over €100 million, it heard.

Met Éireann is due to take over responsibility for flood forecasting from the Office of Public Works later this year and will employ updated technology systems.

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Graham Doyle, secretary general of the Department of Housing (which funds Met Éireann), said that some of the delays with the new system were associated with trying to recruit staff with specialist expertise such as in radar systems, a flood forecasting database, a coastal model review and tide gauge.

“Staffing is my understanding of why it is just taking a little bit longer. But what is being done is being done to a very, very professional standard. I don’t think it affected those recent events but for the future, to have an absolute state-of-the-art [system] is the objective.”

Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh said the national forecaster did a good job during Storm Babet in the circumstances, given a red weather warning, the most severe, would not have been appropriate because of the wider ramifications it would have had.

He said the new flood forecasting database “is the specific type of forecasting that we need. It’s different to that county-wide red weather warning, or orange warning. It is specifically around flood forecasting,” he said.

Earlier, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork James O’Connor said the need for an early warning system was now urgent.

“What we saw happen in Midleton this week has now consequently done damage that’s in the high tens of millions in Midleton alone,” he said.

“And in other areas the damage that has been done to road infrastructure is in the tens of millions and is most certainly over €100 million in damages to homes, to businesses and to road and critical infrastructure in that community.”

The discussion came as Tánaiste Micheál Martin told the Climate Summit at Trinity College Dublin that the immediate climate threats facing Ireland mean there must be a collective understanding that flood protection measures are needed, rather than projects being delayed by having to “go right through to the Supreme Court and so on”.

The PAC was discussing the budget and performance of the Department of Housing and local authorities, with officials from Uisce Éireann, the water service, and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities also in attendance.

The department’s 2022 expenditure was €5.6 billion out of a total budget of €6.2 billion. That included €3.4 billion on housing, €1.5 billion on water services and €428 million on local government. Of €587 million in surplus funds, €340 million was unspent capital carried over into 2023 and €247 million was surrendered.

Last month, local authorities were advised of a €75 million increase in Local Property Tax baseline funding for the coming year, with a minimum increase of €1.5 million each as a result of the recent baseline review.

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke asked department officials what local authorities were doing to secure vacant properties through compulsory purchase. He raised the inquest this week of a man who had been dead in a derelict property in Mallow for about 20 years before being discovered.

The family of the deceased has called on the Government to review derelict housing legislation.

Caroline Timmons, assistant secretary in the Affordable Housing Division noted the Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) Activation Programme, launched in April, which sets targets for local authorities to acquire vacant and derelict properties for use.

“We actually agree with you in this very much Deputy that the use of CPO powers by the local authority could be strengthened,” she said, adding that councils have been asked to process 4,000 properties this year.