Sir, – Dublin City Council’s executive manager, Tom Leahy, is reported as attributing the floods to the laying of concrete and tarmac on previously green spaces and states that the biggest offenders are the older housing estates which had a nice green environment with front and back gardens which acted as a soak when they were first built.
He omits to mention the fact that Dublin City Council, in recent years has pursued an aggressive policy of supporting infill developments which have effectively destroyed many of the green environments which he advocates. It is also a fact that Dublin City Council has done nothing to restrict the hard surfacing of front gardens and in at least one instance has spent large sums of public monies on cobble-locking a large number of gardens in a corporation estate in a so-called re-juvenation programme.
Dublin City Council has the prime responsibility to maintain adequate drainage in the urban area. The response of Mr Leahy is merely an attempt to deflect the blame onto someone else. – Yours, etc,