Simon Harris blames ‘disgraceful’ planning for flooding

Minister Simon Harris has blamed “disgraceful” planning for the vast majority of flood-hit homes and businesses.

Mr Harris also said that local authorises cannot use the environment or spawning fish as an “excuse” to avoid maintaining rivers to avoid flooding stating “people are more important than fish”.

It came as more communities found themselves being battered by winds of up to 135km/h followed by heavy rain as Storm Eva made its way across the country. Status-orange level gales caused damage in a number of areas though the conditions were expected to die down by 1am. The ESB reported a number of outages including in Co Cork where Cobh, Fermoy and Mallow were among the areas affected.