Higgins shown ‘devastating’ flooding in Enniscorthy

The floods in Enniscorthy delivered Cathal Brennan (7) his big opportunity.

As President Michael D Higgins and his wife commiserated with Peter O’Brien inside his flood-damaged home at Island Road, Cathal, thrice disappointed during previous efforts to meet his hero, waited patiently with his sister Caoimhe (5).

He’s very small, observed the girl.

“Well, he’s bigger than you,” replied Cathal.

The reward – a happy photograph with the Presidential party and brother Fionn (8) – was a lighter moment in an otherwise grim but comforting inspection by the President of flood-damaged homes and businesses along the banks of the river Slaney in Enniscorthy.

It was flooded three times in recent days – December 30th, New Year’s Eve and again last Saturday – with the river bursting both its banks due to the volume of water trying to reach the sea.

Most damage occurred on Shannon and Abbey quays, Templeshannon Street, Island Road and the Promenade. A total of 100 properties – shops, garages, several hotels and homes – were evacuated, according to Wexford County Council.

In The Sleep Shop, a furniture store on Shannon Quay, owner Pat Murphy politely voiced his frustration at not being able to get flood insurance.

“Oh God, this is devastating,” said the President as he squelched across the mud-soaked carpet and peered at the flood-wrecked interior, a watermark about two feet up the wall.

Insurance for Mr Murphy would involve an initial €10,000 non-payment clause – not worth it to him. But he hoped flood abatement measures would help.

Hope, and help, is on the horizon for Enniscorthy, and it may be this winter’s floods will be the last to invade the town for a long time. A €35 million flood defence scheme is at the design stage.

“Walls on the quays will be raised and there will be a glass section to allow viewing of the river continue,” explained director of services for Wexford County Council, John Carley.

“There’ll be a new, higher road bridge, downstream of the existing modern bridge, which will be replaced by a footbridge.”

Implementing the scheme will start by the end of this year “if all goes according to plan,” said Mr Carley, with completion during 2017 and fully working defences in place by 2018.

The scheme, which the council will implement as agents for the Office of Public Works, is designed to cope with a “once in 100 years” flood level – “and a bit more”, said Mr Carley.

“All of these defence schemes take time but the key thing is that the council are agents for the OPW,” he added.

It cannot come quickly enough for Cathríona Quirke, owner of a house on Island Road. She too cannot get insurance.

“Well,” Mr Higgins advised her, “I’d stick at it [with the insurance company]. This is entirely different to what happened in 2009.”

He later rejected the notion, advanced by Leitrim TD Michael Fitzmaurice, that an EU Habitats Directive, brought into force in 1997 when Mr Higgins was a government minister, was somehow responsible for preventing flood ameliorating measures, such as river dredging. The effects of climate change were altering how all such matters were addressed, he said.

The President thanked local authority staff who co-ordinated responses to the flooding, along with Slaney Search and Rescue, Civil Defence, other first responders, and the Defence Forces. Troops from the 3rd Infantry Battalion in Kilkenny monitored rising river levels and were able to respond as the drama unfolded.