City to splash out on flood defences despite cash crisis

Flood prevention work costing €4m will still go ahead, despite Dublin City Council's current financial woes.

The announcement was made at the council's north central area committee meeting during a recent presentation on flood damage in the Clanmoyle estate in Donnycarney.

Councillors were told that the walls at the back of a number of homes are being knocked down and rebuilt, leaving a route for rain water to escape into the neighbouring Clontarf Golf Club.

A channel is also being created, allowing excess water to be funnelled to the back of the properties and into the golf club, the committee's chairman Cllr Gerry Breen (FG) told the Herald newspaper.

However, the major part of the works will involve upgrading culverts through which the River Wad flows, widening the system to increase its capacity. This was the subject of a meeting held with the Office of Public Works (OPW).

It comes after dozens of people had to be evacuated from their homes in Clanmoyle in the early hours of July 2, when three weeks' worth of rain fell in the capital in just 90 minutes. It was the second time residents had been flooded in a year and they have vented their frustration at the lack of action to remedy the problem.

In the aftermath of the floods, a spokesman for the residents said - "We want Dublin City Council to do something now. We know that you know what the problem is - and now we want you to act. We were told at a meeting last year that this problem is likely to only occur once every 150 years, but here we are again.

"All the work we have done on our homes since last year is worthless. It has been blown apart."

Council engineer Martin Ryan had told residents at the time - "The big stumbling block is financial. We have to approach the Department of Environment and OPW."

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