Businesses demand funds as flood bill set to top €50m

Cork’s embattled business community is demanding a clear commitment of government funds for flood defences in the city as it emerges that the bill for this week’s flooding will top €50m.

Thu, 06 Feb, 2014 - 00:00

Michael O’Kane, Eoin English, and Claire O’Sullivan

The call for action comes as the Taoiseach admitted that the €250m he is allocating to bolster the country’s flood defences over the next five years will not be enough.

Speaking in the Dáil, Enda Kenny said the cost of building 10km of wall defences in Cork alone would be in the region of €50m-€100m and it was a complex engineering challenge to halt the “the inexorable rise of tides and consequential water back-up”.