Cork floods ‘tragic context’ for Green Party convention

A GREEN Party councillor has said the devastation of the flooding in Cork last week was the “tragic and unavoidable context” for the Green Party Convention held in Cork over the weekend.

Selected to be one of Europe’s first climate-neutral cities, Cork was the chosen location for the convention which saw hundreds of party members assemble to decide party policy and prepare for the forthcoming European and local elections.

While the main focuses of the convention included transport and energy, climate change and the recent flooding of Cork towns — the aftermath of which left many businesses and homes destroyed — became what Green Party councillor Oliver Moran described as the unavoidable context of the convention.

“The tragic and unavoidable context for the convention in Cork was the devastation from floods in Midleton, Glanmire, and Blackpool in the days before,” he said.

“Every homeowner and business person I spoke to sees the connection between the floods last week and climate change.

“The city’s own Climate Action Plan next month will identify flooding as the most serious risk to Cork from climate change.

“Even before last week’s flood, 80% of residents said climate change was affecting weather in the city. On the northside of the city, half of households said they were affected directly already.”

Mr Moran said he was not impressed with Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s comments that objections are to blame for delays in flood relief schemes.

“The Glanmire scheme was delayed because of tendering issues, the Midleton scheme hasn’t yet come for planning, and the Blackpool scheme has been with the minister since January 2022 when he conceded to revert to the public for further consultation with residents,” he said.

“Placing the blame on ordinary people for those failings isn’t fair and it won’t get things done any more quickly.

“Like Eamon Ryan said at the weekend, the best form of flood defence is the one that works with nature, slowing down waters and holding them in before they arrive at towns and suburbs.

“That will take working with farmers as part of land management payments, but that approach will be more resilient to the unpredictable changes in climate ahead of us.

“Some traders I spoke to in Blackpool also have suggestions about local responses to flood incidents. That kind of thinking is unfortunately likely to be part of the answer and I will try to advance that in Cork City Council.”

Mr Moran said that people need humanitarian packages for which €10m has been allocated for households and a scheme for businesses will be announced this week.

Touching on how Cork will lead the way in cutting down greenhouse gas emissions, councillor Dan Boyle said: “We should be seeking to retrofit all public buildings, especially public housing. We should maximise Cork’s potential to become a hub for renewable energy.”

On transport, he called for BusConnects to be “quickly implemented”, the Cork light rail to be brought forward and for at least another three park-and-ride facilities on the edges of the city to be put in place.