Carlow town councillors have agreed to write to Environment Minister John Gormley in an effort to recoup the €70,000 the local authority spent dealing with floods this year.
In the wake of widespread flooding last month, the issues of remuneration and future flood defences continues to occupy minds as efforts are made to ensure August’s scenes are not repeated.
The decision to seek remuneration from the central government comes following the publication of a report into last month’s flooding in Carlow town.
The report notes that the local authority spent €40,000 managing the floods in addition to a further €30,000 spent managing a similar flood in January of this year.
Cathaoirleach Thomas O’Neill said that by rights, it should fall on the central government rather than the local authority to cover these costs, and his sentiments were supported by his fellow councillors.
The report from town engineer Kieran Cullinane revealed that some five residential buildings and a further five commercial buildings in the town centre were directly affected by August’s flooding.
“There have been claims from other commercial premises who claim direct loss of income as a result of the emergency road closures implemented during the events,” he said.
Cllr Jennifer Murnane O’Connor suggested the council make an effort to help the five commercial premises directly affected with a one-off payment or rate cut.
“It is hard enough having a business these days in the current economic climate, when a business is hit like this we should try to help them,” she said.
But defence against future flooding remains a high priority for the council, with the report suggesting the combined €30 million main drainage scheme and flood relief scheme would reduce the adverse effects of flooding.
Mr Cullinane said both were at an advanced stage of preparation and were nearing contract award stage.
Cllr Michael Abbey suggested the implementation of an early warning system which would involve monitoring the situation further upstream at Monasterevin.
The report also revealed that 25 people had to be evacuated from an apartment block on Centaur Street in response to the ESB cutting off the power supply due to a submerged sub-station.
Mr Cullinane said the council had already been in contact with the ESB about relocating the sub-station in the near future.
He also assured councillors that the main drainage scheme and the flood relief scheme took into account changing weather patterns and said the flood wall was designed to handle 1947 levels and could be extended in the future.
Meanwhile Cllr Des Hurley and Cllr Jim Townsend have asked the council to address problems with the man-made islands in the river and the weir, which are adding to the problems when flooding occurs.
“The island on the north side of the bridge is interfering with the rowing club and the view of Carlow town park. They are serving no purpose,” Cllr Hurley said.
“We should call on the OPW or whoever is responsible, to remove both of the islands. The steel structure on the weir was put there to serve the Barrow Mills which are long gone. If it wasn’t for the Sub-Aqua Club that would be blocked.”
