OPW’s €425k campaign to raise awareness of flooding ‘didn’t work’

By Conor Ryan Political Correspondent

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

THE chairwoman of the Office of Public Works has conceded that a €425,000 campaign to raise awareness of flooding did not work.

The three-year campaign by the OPW involved billboards, print adverts and consultancy fees to make the public aware of risks.

Chairwoman of the OPW, Clare McGrath, told an Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, that the devastation caused in the River Shannon catchment area before Christmas had shown the project to have been ineffective.

"In light of the events, this did not work very well for us," she said.

Ms McGrath said the OPW had to work on its communication network and the sharing of information with all other agencies.

She said the costly campaign may have been pitched at the wrong level and had gone over the heads of the public.

Up until very recently, OPW minister Martin Mansergh was still citing the public awareness effort as evidence of the Government’s successful control of seasonal rises in water levels.

In 2005, €189,331 was spent on the campaign, including €64,933 on consultancy fees.

A further €105,281 was spent on print advertising in 2006.

Ms McGrath’s comments came at a committee which included representatives from an array of organisations with responsibility for various aspects in the management of the river.

The committee heard muted support for the possibility of lowering the level of the River Shannon by a foot.

The Department of the Environment’s National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Heritage Council and the Fisheries Board, said they would welcome consideration of a water-level drop – if this was part of a wider impact assessment under the European Commission’s Habitats Directive.

Waterways Ireland said it would not object to dropping the level in principle. However, its representative said if it made the river difficult to navigate, this would make "redundant much of the expensive infrastructure inaccessible to boats".

Nicholas Tarrent of the ESB said the level in Lough Derg was kept within a certain range and Ardnacrusha would be compromised if it dropped below 33.1 metres.

The ESB claimed the rainfall was so severe that flooding would have resulted, regardless of the level it was kept at. At the height of the crisis, enough water flowed in to the lake to fill Lough Derg in just half a day, the company said.

However, Michael Silke, chairman of IFA floods project team, launched a stinging attack on the statutory agencies who he said had no interest in cleaning up or maintaining the river properly.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, March 10, 2010