Flooding was on the agenda again at Monday’s meeting of Galway County Council, with Kinvara Councillor Joe Byrne calling for the immediate progressing of the channel in Cahermore. A channel was constructed in the townland between Ardrahan and Kinvara in January during the height of the flooding, but it has been agreed by all that to alleviate South Galway’s flooding issues in the long-term, it needs to be deepened and lengthened.
Galway County Council is currently submitting an application for planning permission to get this work completed. Director of services Liam Gavin said the local authority was currently in discussions with the OPW as to how they could progress the work and the picture is, as yet, unclear.
Councillor Byre said he could not impress enough the importance of this issue. “I am calling for this to be progressed with immediate effect. It must be made a number one priority. We have the support of the outgoing Government, we have the support of the chairman of the OPW, there should be no problem. I would ask that this is progressed within the next week or two, it is vital for the people of Cahermore and South Galway that this happens. We can’t solve the flooding problem in South Galway without this channel in Cahermore.”
Republican Sinn Féin TD Thomas O’Curraoin said councillors could do all the talking in the world but the bottom line was that dredging work needed to be done and now was the time to do it.
Fianna Fáil’s Michael Connolly said a methodological approach needed to be taken to flooding in the county. “Anywhere flooding is taking place, we need to put measures in place to mitigate it. At the end of the day it is going to be about money. We can put forward all the solutions in the world, but we need money to implement them.”
