We must prioritise coastal protection and tackle erosion

WITH memories of storms a year ago still fresh, people in coastal areas worry about a recurrence of the damage and flooding — made worse by a lack of hope that anything meaningful will be done about the situation.

Coastal protection has never been a national priority and, given the ongoing dearth of State cash, is unlikely to be. While the storms highlighted the vulnerability of our coastline, we are still “lagging far behind” our European neighbours in regard to coastal protection and tackling erosion, according to one of the country’s leading experts.

Dr Jimmy Murphy, of UCC’s marine research centre, says new strategies are needed to deal with large-scale coastal erosion, adding that while Government had funded the repair of much of the recent damage, there is a continuing failure to tackle the underlying issue of how to manage our coastline on a national basis.