Members of Claremorris Electoral Area Committee have demanded answers to when a solution will be in place to make sure that 2006 floods that effected The Neale does not happen again.
Richard Dooley from the Office of Public Works (OPW ) attended the February meeting of the committee and gave the members a presentation on the different studies and surveys they had been carrying out to find a solution to the problems. However the proposed road raising solution, which had been identified as the best cost benefit solution, was not acceptable to a number of councillors.
At the end of the discussion Cllr Damien Ryan stated: “Six years on and we’re no better off now than we were then, it’s not good enough. What do I say to the people in that area when I meet them again? They’ll ask me what will be done.”
Mr Dooley reported that alternative engineering solutions had been discounted as too costly for the benefits they would give to the area.
The councillors pushed for The Neale to be included in a national study of flood-affected areas where works would be carried out to fix the problem.
Senior engineer for Mayo County Council, Patsy Burke replied: “We will bring it forward, but it also has to be remembered that The Neale will be a long way down their list of priorities on a cost benefit basis. They will be looking at a couple of hundred houses in south Galway which were flooded and a couple of houses in The Neale.”
Cllr O’Brien had also earlier in the meeting expressed his upset at the National Parks and Wildlife service for the delay in giving approval for the OPW to go ahead with flood improvement works in the Hollymount and Roundfort areas.
Mr Dooley told the meeting his office was waiting for approval from the NPW for a weir type system it had designed for the area, but he has yet to receive approval from the NPW for the go-ahead for the project.
