Cork council rules out buying €600k drain-clearing machine to help prevent flooding

Cork County Council currently relies on one machine for the whole county, for which it pays a private contractor

Members of the Midleton and East Cork Flood Protection group protesting at Cork County Hall on Monday. Picture: Jim Coughlan

Cork County Council bosses have refused to buy additional machinery to clear blocked drains and gulleys around the county to help prevent flooding.

The news was given to councillors as a small number of people attended a protest outside Cork County Hall on the slowness of flood relief works in the region. The protestors came from Midleton and Mogeely in East Cork and from the North Cork village of Rathcormac.

They are concerned with the progress being made to protect nearly 900 homes and businesses which were flooded in the region during Storm Babet in October 2023.

Midleton and East Cork Flood Protection Group spokeswoman Caroline Leahy said they wanted to raise awareness of the unacceptable pace of flood prevention works, especially when it comes to installing flood gates for individual properties.

To date, just 74 have been installed following a Government grant aid scheme announced nearly a year ago.

Ms Leahy said while a major project was being planned in Midleton, there are no indications about when flood prevention schemes might start in Mogeely, Castlemartyr, Killeagh, and Rathcormac.

“They're living with endless, endless, winters of no support whatsoever,” she claimed.

Meanwhile, in the council chamber, officials proposed the council buy its own high-powered drain-cleaning machine.

It currently relies on one machine for the whole county, for which it pays a private contractor.

Independent councillor Ger Curley said a recent audit in Cobh detailed 988 known gullies and drains which get blocked at this time of the year with fallen leaves.

He maintained the current machinery the council itself owns does not have the suction capacity to clean them out of debris and this is one of the causes of towns and villages flooding.

Mr Curley said it would be more financially viable for the council, in the long run, to buy its own machines.

Fianna Fáil councillor Audrey Buckley said Glutton machines with extremely high suction power are used all over Europe to clean out drains, especially with autumn leaf falls.

She said every one of the eight municipal district councils in the region should have one, along with the far bigger one for which the council is paying a private contractor.

Fianna Fáil councillor Sheila O’Callaghan said the council was top notch when it came to salting and gritting roads during winter, but unfortunately this runs off the roads and clogs drains.

Padraig Barrett, head of the council’s road directorate, said buying a similar machine they pay the private contractor for would cost about €600,000, and he did not think doing so was value for money.