Alan Kelly seeks funds to cover full cost of floods

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has said he will bring a memo to Cabinet next Tuesday seeking funds to cover the full costs of flood damage caused during the storms of the past week.

With concerns mounting of further serious flooding around the lower Shannon in the coming days, Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday apologised for not visiting badly hit areas and said his presence in Dublin, from where the response was being co-ordinated, was more important at this stage. Speaking on Midwest Radio, he committed to visiting affected towns at an unspecified future date.

Communities in areas surrounding the lower River Shannon are on alert with water levels expected to keep rising, possibly peaking by Sunday or Monday.

The National Co-ordination Group, which met yesterday, has warned of some potentially serious flooding in some areas, although others have improved.

While the ESB decided against increasing the water discharge rate at Parteen Weir, levels were continuing to rise.

In a number of areas – notably Athlone, Ballinasloe and Co Clare – Defence Forces personnel remain on standby and continue to assist in defensive works.

Evelyn Cusack of Met Éireann said there was uncertainty around the weekend's weather conditions, although heavy rain in parts of counties Kerry, Cork, Waterford and Wexford is likely.

A circular was sent this week by the Department of Environment to every local authority asking them to give an assessment of the costs of staff deployment and overtime, as well as structural remedial work.

The deadline for returning the assessments was 6pm yesterday evening. The information compiled on costs will form the basis of a memorandum seeking emergency funds, which are likely to run to several million euro.

Substantial budgets

Speaking during a break in the COP21 climate change negotiations in Paris yesterday, Mr Kelly accepted repairs and flood defence infrastructure would require substantial budgets in future.

“Realistically you are looking at a sizeable amount of money. We need to provide protection for those areas that will be worst affected,” he said.

Mr Kelly did not accept severe flooding and weather conditions required him to return to Ireland from Paris. He said he was speaking to his officials on an hourly basis and would return to Ireland tomorrow to coordinate his Department's response.

Some difficulties had been caused by poor planning in the past and, he added, while some flood defences worked well, others had struggled.

“You can never have a utopian situation [where everything is protected]. Storms cause unintended consequences,” he said. “What we must do is prepare ourselves in the best way possible after this event.”