Flood management fund of €44.5m available in Ireland

Michael O'Regan and Marie O'Halloran in the Irish Times:  The allocation for schemes addressing flood problems this year is €44.5 million, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has said. Brendan Howlin told the Dáil this morning that he had been very anxious last year to ensure funding for flood management schemes would be protected.

“In truth, climate change is changing our weather patterns,’’ he added. “We are having wetter summers, as was predicted. We have just come through the wettest June on record.’’ Mr Howlin said the €44.5 million, allocated through the Office of Public Works, contrasted with the allocations in the boom time. In 2007, some €23 million had been allocated; in 2008, the figure was €24 million.

“We are getting better value as well, because construction prices have been reduced,’’ he said. Mr Howlin said there had been building on flood plains in the boom time because of bad planning. “That is another legacy issue of the Celtic Tiger that we are left to address,’’ he added.

...He said flooding in the Shannon basin was regular and consistent and there was a need for an early warning system...

High water on the River Fergus in Ennis, Ireland (2009), shot by Eddylandzaat, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license