'I can't go through this a third time': Locals frustrated by flood relief timelines

The Midleton flood relief scheme to protect up to 750 properties is currently estimated for submission to An Bord Pleanála by early 2026 and for substantial completion in 2031, but for those in nearby villages, the timeline on when they will be safe from another flood remains uncertain.

Cork East Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide raised this issue in the Dáil recently, saying: “Prior to our day of devastation in East Cork on October 18, 2023, and since then, the response by the State to the flood risk has been detached, disjointed, and inadequate.

“Settlements throughout East Cork that were struck on that day remain as exposed as ever to severe flooding. In some cases, we have no real clarity on a timeframe for works,” he said, adding that residents he has spoken to are “in a state of disbelief and despair” over this.

He told The Echo: “The OPW has subdivided its flood relief delivery programme into tranches. It says it is not possible to devise schemes concurrently due to ‘limited capacity in the OPW, in local authorities, and in the specialised consultancy market’.

“It is alarming to see this piecemeal approach to a challenge that requires a comprehensive response. How much effort has been put into recruiting experts from abroad? East Cork remains at huge risk without a dramatic increase in ambition and a sense of urgency.”

Mr Quaide explained: “We have a large-scale flood relief scheme for Midleton very slowly moving towards the planning phase and other smaller-scale projects for villages in East Cork in various stages of limbo.

“Many properties that should have had floodgates installed long ago are still without them. All the while, residents of Midleton, Killeagh, Castlemartyr, Ladysbridge, Rathcormac, and Whitegate wait for the next major flood event. The indications from climate science are that it is a matter of when, not if.

“The Government needs to be on a sustained emergency footing in respect of flood relief, with cross-departmental and cross-agency work that is properly led, resourced, and co-ordinated.”

A spokesperson for the OPW told The Echo: “Since 2018, and working with local authorities, the OPW has trebled, to some 100, the number of flood relief schemes at design and construction.

“There remain some 50 schemes, referred to as tranche two, identified by the flood risk management plans, yet to commence work on their design, due to constraints of professional specialised engineering services and skills in Ireland.

“However, the Government is committed to funding these projects through the €1.3bn available under the national development plan for flood relief measures.

“Prioritisation of these schemes has maximised local authority and OPW capacity and has also maximised the return to the State.

“As well as requiring financial commitment to meet the costs, progressing more flood relief schemes needs capacity and capability in this very highly specialised area of hydrological engineering. In the coming years, as schemes move through the pipeline into planning and construction, some of these committed specialist resources will be ‘freed up’, and this will allow for new schemes to advance.”

They added: “Under the national delivery model, Cork County Council is leading the delivery of six flood relief schemes with nine [in] tranche two, including Castlemartyr, Youghal, and Rathcormac. The OPW is funding nine staff in Cork County Council to support its delivery of this programme of schemes, and other schemes across the county including in Mogeely and Killeagh.”

“The OPW is keen to continue to find ways that it can advance new schemes, even at a time when the local authority and OPW resources to support their progression are stretched and are reliant on a small market of specialised consultants”, with a pilot programme underway in Donegal and Kilkenny currently.

“The council have progressed a number of interim flood defence works in Midleton since Storm Babet in October 2023,” including the installation of a flood embankment, upgrade of storm infrastructure, drainage channel clearing and works to roads to improve drainage in Rathcormac they said. The spokesperson also said that they approved funding under the minor works scheme for flood mitigation works in Castlemartyr and Killeagh in September 2024 including gravel removal, river cleaning and minor drainage upgrades to the rivers Kiltha and Dissour.

Additionally, an application by Cork County Council for a study into the potential for natural water retention measures and to procure a consultant to undertake hydrological and hydraulic modelling of the streams and rivers in the vicinity of Mogeely Village is currently under review.

RATCHCORMAC

Aujelle Raggett from Rathcormac told The Echo that she was at home with her twin daughters, who were a year and a half at the time, when the water came into the house.

“I was outside putting up flood barriers to stop the water coming in and my twin girls were running around in this disgusting water which had come into the house. I had to bring the girls and our dogs upstairs and just wait until my husband came home from work. A neighbour came over and turned off our power. The council were useless, when I called them and said the house was flooded, they offered to send out sandbags.

“It took my husband an hour and a half to get back home because there were diversions everywhere — him and the neighbour had to carry the girls out on the backs because the water was up to our waists.

“It was horrendous, the water ripped out all of downstairs, all the furniture, the girls’ toys, clothes. Now I can’t even sleep when it rains heavily, I’m petrified whenever we go away, constantly checking the weather.”

She explained that they were lead to believe that some works were meant to be completed by the of September of last year on the road outside their home, but that didn’t happen.

“Now we’re back to square one again, fighting and fighting but coming up against a brick wall and we’re coming up to another winter — we can’t be living like this, especially with young children.

“It rained heavily six or seven weeks ago and there was a river outside our door, that wasn’t even winter, so we’re living in fear 12 months a year.

“We have new flood barriers but that didn’t work last time, it came up through the pipes we think — we’re still not entirely clear of how all the water got into the house.”

Claire O’Flynn, also from Rathcormac, said that she was flooded in 2023 for the second time, telling The Echo: “[That] October our whole house was destroyed, we lost doors, the kitchen flooring, the carpet on the stairs, everything inside had to go.

“The problem is there’s no end to it all, I can’t go through this a third time, I think I will actually crack up. We’re not getting any younger, we can’t be dragging sandbags around every time it rains.

“We’re not the only ones, other households have been destroyed too — something has to be done, it’s not fair on any family. Every time there’s a downpour we’re so worried, there’s nights we stay up looking out the window to see if there’s water coming down through the village. They say there’s plenty of money, so why don’t we get it started — we want a timeline for when it will be fixed, and we want it sooner rather than later.”

MOGEELY

Vivienne Jeffers explained that she was one of 46 houses affected in Mogeely, including 30 in the Gleann Fia housing estate where she lives.

“Our estate is wooden framed dwellings, so we can’t take another flood. Our homes are already deemed compromised, the next flood means we’re homeless.

“We have 56 entry points where water can get in from ventilation holes, and there’s no product on the market to protect us, we’re only able to block windows and doors, but the water just comes in anyway.

“The water was up to the kitchen counter tops, and I got trapped in the house with my two young children because the wooden floorboards popped up and we couldn’t get out the front door.

“It was not the beautiful, see-through water you get at the beach, it was brown, dirty, manure-filled water.

“You couldn’t see anything through it, if the manholes had blown outside we could have fallen down — we were lucky to survive with our lives, but that fear still lives with every resident, we’re scared of rainfall and lots of us are spending a fortune getting our children the therapy they need because they’re traumatised.

“It was local farmers that came in, pumped out our water, and took the rubbish and all the furniture that had become rubbish out from our houses.

“Nobody from the council came to us, we were left to sit in that water and fend for ourselves, and now the Government are doing the same thing.

“Flood doors reach three feet high, the water came up four feet. They’re not even giving us a sticking plaster, it feels like they don’t care because we’re not a business in Midleton providing revenue or paying rates.

“Nothing has been done since, there’s been no shovels in the ground at all and we’ve been getting copy and paste responses from ministers and the OPW. They just keep saying money isn’t the issue, it’s the expertise, but they won’t give us money to get our own experts — it’s a stalling tactic.”

She explained that they are waiting on surveys to be done, as they are flooded from a lot of different places including two rivers, agricultural land and caves, and that flooding in Mogeely has a knock-on effect on areas like Castlemartyr and Ladysbridge.

“In May 2024, some areas flooded, we were lucky to escape, but it shows we can flood any time, we don’t have to wait for winter.

“We need tranche two initiated now and this whole area done, because we’re one flood away from being homeless or pulling the bodies of our children out of our houses.”

CASTLEMARTYR

Catherine Power from Castlemartyr said their area has had flooding problems for a long time: “We were flooded in 2023 and 2015, and our neighbours were flooded in 2009. Luckily, we escaped, but some homes have been flooded three times.

“We had done remedial works to our home after ’15, moved the front door to the rear and installed floodgates, but in October 2023 there was absolute devastation, it was the same thing all over again.

“We had tried to get work done through the local authority after 2015 but they were deemed premature, so we got our own works done, no funding was made available from the OPW but luckily we had insurance, so we were out of the house six months then we thought we were home and dry — literally.

“After 2023, enough was enough. Last autumn there was some interim works but it was only dredging a small section of the river, we know that’s not going to save us from another Storm Babet. Our insurance is gone now, they quoted us €4,500 to be insured, which is just not worth it.”

She added that they are involved with the Midleton flood protection group, and go to their weekly meetings, but the expertise is not available for the Castlemartyr scheme until the Midleton scheme in tranche one is completed.

“It’s set to take about 11 years to finish, so we’re talking about the 2030s into 2040 before our scheme is completed.”

She added that she “is not stirring for the summer”, because they have been promised that a Government minister will visit them, and she wants to be there to outline their situation and appeal for the work to be fast tracked. They have identified a possible solution, where excess water could be diverted into an existing channel.

“It’s part of our life now, we’ve had to becomes experts on rainfall levels, river gauges, and we’re constantly checking them, it’s constantly on our minds.

“It’s hard to get information too, our public rep are very good to us and we have to use them to try and get answers. We just want the minister to come and see that we’re not directing the Shannon, it’s only a small stream. Fixing it in the late 2030s is ridiculous, when at the moment we’re flooding every six to eight years.”

KILLEAGH

Martina Williams, who lives just outside Killeagh, told The Echo that water came up to her knees when her house flooded in October 2023, yet they are not included in the scheme.

She joined a local flood protection group afterwards, and said: “I’ve found it helpful meeting and talking to people who are also affected. I live on my own, and it’s most difficult for families, but it was very traumatic for me too, and the support in the group has been good.

“The timeframe for finishing the works is just too long to put people at any sort of ease, and the attitude around it too. I understand there’s a lot of administrative work needs to be done that we can’t be informed of, but something needs to be done to give people a bit of trust.

“Every time there’s heavy rainfall it’s kind of triggering a memory of what happened, particularly for people who were also flooded in 2015.”

As part of her work with the group she is consulting with the Irish Farmers Association, and she added that consultation is also going on with Irish Fisheries, explaining “nature based measures should be a part of the plans, and the Government said after the flooding that farmers should be involved but they say nothing has happened since from their side.”

“It’s just frustrating, you contact politicians and get the same responses back that you’ve heard before, there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency.”