Real cost of flood damage escalates way beyond €18m Council bill

URGENT short-term aid measures are being sought this week in Galway after the recent storms left island and coastal communities reeling – while tens of thousands of acres of land across the south and east of the county are now under water.

This week, Galway County Council have submitted a long term repair estimate of over €18 million to the Department of the Environment but there have been strong calls for a ‘quick access ‘national emergency fund to be set up.

Floodwaters are continuing to rise in the South Galway area as of last evening with some local national schools, a nursing home and a housing estate under threat of being cut off.

“This is as bad if not worse than 2009. The same thing is happening all over again and in the meantime nothing was done – it really is serious when schools, a nursing home and 75 houses near Ballinderreen are under threat,” long time flood campaigner, Mattie Hallinan told the Connacht Tribune this week.

While Galway County Council have confirmed the submission of an €18.2m damage estimate for the county – likely to increase with the ongoing bad weather – West Galway Fianna Fáil TD, Éamon Ó Cuív said that a short-term national emergency fund should already been set up.

“We have an oil depot that can’t be accessed on Inishmore, graveyards are under threat along the coast, many small roads are impassable – the setting up of an immediate emergency aid fund would greatly help local communities over the coming days and weeks,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.

Liam Allen, of the North Connemara Action Group, said that immediate assistance was needed for places like Inishbofin and other areas along the coast where families were really at crisis point.

“The water is now coming very close to many of the house on Inishbofin and if the islanders were supplied with what are known as crimp-on cages to put stones into, this would be a very practical defence that they could put in place themselves over the next couple of days,” said Liam Allen. 

According to South Connemara councillor, Seosamh Ó Cuaig, the front-line Council staff in Connemara did ‘an exceptional job’ over recent weeks but added that there were only 40 of them to cover a region that had a population bigger than either Leitrim or Longford.

“Thankfully, there has been no serious injury or loss of life but families are very upset over coastal graveyards that have been disturbed by the flooding such as Muiris Maora,” said Cllr. Ó Cuaig.

On the east side of the county, local Shannon Callows farmer and Chairman of the IFA’s National Flood Project Team, Michael Silke, said that tens of thousands of acres in this area were now under water. “We are literally an inch of rain away from another flooding disaster,” said Michael Silke.

He said that farmers and householders in the Shannon Callows area had completely lost faith in the political process, describing OPW Junior Minister, Brian Hayes, as ‘an unmitigated disaster’ in terms of coming to grips with the flood problems of the area.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.