Objectors to Cork flood plans must be answerable if lives lost, says minister
Flooding at the Lee Fields, Cork. Patrick O'Donovan said the only thing that will mitigate flood risk is allowing the state agencies to get on and deliver the flood relief scheme for Cork city centre. File picture:Denis Minihane
Groups taking legal challenges which delay the delivery of flood defence schemes must be answerable if lives are lost in a flood event, the minister charged with delivering flood defences has said.
Patrick O’Donovan, the Minister of State with responsibility for OPW, made his comments during a visit to Cork City yesterday for updates on several schemes.
Mr O’Donovan visited Blackpool where controversy has flared over OPW plans to culvert some 350m of the Bride river as part of a €20m flood relief scheme designed to provide flood protection to around 293 properties — 206 residential and 87 commercial.
The Save Our Bride Otters group is seeking leave for a judicial review of the decision last April by the minister for public expenditure to consent to the scheme proceeding.
A leave hearing, to establish if the judicial review has merit, is due to be heard in the High Court.
Another group, Save Cork City, which is opposing the €150m lower Lee flood relief scheme, is mounting a legal challenge to a public realm upgrade which blended flood defences at Morrison’s Island which has been designed to eliminate some 80% of the flood risk to the city centre.
Mr O’Donovan said people are entitled to object, but that the OPW will not be detracted from its end goal while the risk of flooding hangs over the city.
“And that risk is not going away. It is getting bigger by the day. I would love to say that there is a magic wand that will make that risk go away,” he said.
"But I’m not going to skirt around the truth. The truth is this city needs to face up to that risk.
“There is a risk to life and it needs to face that risk. And if it doesn’t and something happens in the future, somebody would have to be answerable to that.
The only thing that will mitigate that risk is allowing the state agencies that are charged with delivering flood relief, the OPW together with Cork City Council who have developed a plan for Morrison’s Island, to get on and deliver the flood relief scheme for the city centre.
In Blackpool, the minister met pharmacist, Tadgh O’Leary, who works in O’Shea’s Pharmacy, which has been flooded five times since 2002.
Mr O’Leary urged those opposing the scheme to consider residents in the village.
“The village has been through a lot in the last 20 years. We worked hard to get the flood relief scheme across the line,” he said.
“The OPW is hiring a conservationist to look after the otters during the scheme, they have done a huge amount of work to accommodate them, with otter skylights, otter runways, and that is the way it should be.”
But he said the Bride is blighted by fly-tipping and the culverting a section could actually help the river recover.
"The quality of the water will be much improved. It will give the river a chance almost to breathe and could solve two problems in one go," he said.
