OPW contractor pays out €10k for flood relief work that caused fish kill on Bandon River

The €10,000 paid to Inland Fisheries Ireland is to be used for habitat rehabilitation and improvement works

Some of the flood protection measures on the River Bandon which had one of the country’s largest ever flood relief schemes. File picture: Larry Cummins

A State-appointed contractor on one of the country’s largest ever flood relief schemes has paid €10,000 to Inland Fisheries Ireland to boost river habitats after a court had earlier found it was responsible for a fish kill.

Wills Bros Ltd of Foxford in Co. Mayo had been prosecuted by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) over an incident on May 10, 2017, on the Bandon River in Co. Cork, in which it was alleged that as many as 200 fish were killed when a pool — formed by the construction of a haul road in the river — rapidly lost water.