Residents frustration over ongoing delays to East Cork flood relief measures

Three years on from Storm Babet causing €200m worth of damage to homes and businesses in East Cork, local residents have little faith that long-awaited flood protection measures will ever be implemented.

Around 500 people recently attended a protest in Midleton overfurther delays to flood protection works that have been in the pipeline for a decade, even before the devastating floods of October 18, 2023.

Minister of State at the Office of Public Works, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran said earlier this month that Cork County Council will formally lodge a planning application for the Midleton Flood Relief Scheme “at the end of the year”.

In July he said that planning application would be lodged by September. Previous OPW minister, Kieran O’Donnell, had said it would be early 2026.

Anxious

Caroline Leahy, whose home was severely damaged during the 2023 floods, told The Echo: “When the weather starts changing like this, we get quite anxious, because it takes only a couple of weeks of rain.

“Hearing about these El Nino storms is causing a bit of anxiety for people - not knowing what’s around the corner.”

Ms Leahy was one of the organisers of the recent protest.

“It was great to see the turnout, because you’re always a bit nervous that everyone has moved on and it’s just us, sitting here, afraid.”

She said that about 600 homes and 300 businesses are impacted, as well as surrounding villages, which will not even see their flood scheme start until the main Midleton scheme is finished, even though some have seen their homes flooded three times.

Ms Leahy said that three years ago: “We had about three foot of water come into the house in about 20 minutes.”

Residents were told that works could be done in her estate before the rest of the scheme as it wouldn’t have a knock-on effect downstream, and all the land needed was owned by the council already.

However, this project is now also delayed after the council found traces of asbestos in the area where they were planning to dig.

No trust in the system

“Naively, we all thought the floods in 2023 were so severe, so drastic, affected so many people that they government would have to step in now and do something – that hasn’t happened,” said Ms Leahy.

“We know they have to go through the correct procedures and protocols and it has to be done right, but they’re talking about this scheme for more than 10 years, and there’s still not even a planning application in.

“At this point, we don’t have any trust in the system, that anything will ever be done to protect our homes.”

Ms Leahy will feature on a documentary this evening (Tuesday), exploring the growing impact of flooding across Ireland, while examining whether planning, housing and flood protection policies are keeping pace with a changing climate.

The documentary, ‘Ireland Under Water’, airs at 9pm on Virgin Media PLAY and Virgin Media One.