Public meeting to be held to discuss flooding in Rathcormac

RESIDENTS of the north Cork village of Rathcormac will meet tonight to disuss flooding in the area as locals desperately await a long-planned relief scheme.

The community was busy over the weekend putting household furniture and appliances damaged by the latest flooding incident into skips.

They fear the village will be hit by several other such deluges before they get relief.

The home of Claire O’Flynn was one of several homes to be impacted by the flooding.

“Eleven years ago the same thing happened to us, the water came from the village and from across the road and it met in the middle and it came down into us.

“The OPW has a scheme and it’s gone through planning and they’ve done nothing with it and they’re saying now they won’t do it until 2030, that’s another bit down the road and what am I going to do if I get flooded again?”

The community is holding a meeting to discuss the flooding issue in the local hall tonight at 7.45pm.

Rathcormac was one of several Cork communities named as locations for proposed flood relief schemes in 2018 under the Catchment Flood Assessment and Management Programme, the largest ever flood risk study carried out in the State which investigated 300 areas believed to be at significant risk.

Under CFRAM there was to be 118 such schemes carried out around the country and, in the initial phase, there would be five larger schemes and 31 schemes for under €1m. Other schemes, including the scheme for Rathcormac, would get the green light to go ahead in the latter half of the ten years, 2018-27.

The Rathcormac scheme consists of the diversion of flood flows from the Kilbrien Stream via a culvert to the Shanowen River and will protect 31 properties when completed, according to a response issued by the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to the then Cork East TD, Kevin O’Keeffe.

Five years later and there’s no timescale for the work on the Rathcormac project to begin. The project was initially costed at €1.15m – but as construction costs have increased dramatically since 2018, this could be much higher by now.

Fianna Fáil councillor, William O’Leary said the question of when Rathcormac would get its CFRAM scheme has been a regular item on the agenda of the Northern Committee of Cork County Council and at quarterly meetings with the council engineering team.

“The only thing I would say is at least the scheme is approved, it’s gone through several consultation phases and it’s further along than starting from scratch,” said Mr O’Leary.

Following a query from The Echo, the Office of Public Works confirmed the Rathcormac scheme was not in the first tranche of projects ‘to be progressed’ and did not outline a timeline for the completion of the project despite a specific query on that issue.