Councillor calls for single agency to deal with flood threat on waterways

A MEMBER of Limerick County Council who played a major role in the huge flooding clean-up in Newcastle West more than 18 months ago has called for a single agency to be set up to maintain the country’s rivers and streams.

Cllr Patrick O’Donovan (FG) said that the Government should transfer control of the country’s waterways to a single agency who would be accountable to the local authorities, and whose primary role would be the maintenance of rivers and streams so as to reduce possible flooding.

“We have seen in west Limerick in August 2008 and across the west and south of Ireland this November that there really is no one taking the issue of drainage and river maintenance seriously and this was a major factor in the flooding that devastated so many properties across the country,” he said.