Fighting the flood must be a priority

FOLLOWING a weekend in which the city she represents was swamped with flood water, Housing Minister Jan O’Sullivan said the devastation — and what happens in the future — would have to be an “absolute priority for the Government”.

Her reaction was raw. She had seen first-hand what she described as “unprecedented” flooding in Limerick — the Shannon and Abbey rivers had never reached the levels they hit over the weekend. Whole estates of houses were left submerged.

However, the reality is that, for many parts of the country, these flooding incidents are no longer unprecedented — they are happening all too frequently. Coastal flooding has ripped into Galway and Clare repeatedly in recent years, while parts of Cork City and county have experienced significant tidal and/or fluvial (river) flooding every year.