Temporary Flood Measures For Enniscorthy May Not Be Enough - Council CEO

Wexford County Council's CEO has admitted temporary flood defence schemes in Enniscorthy won't be enough to survive another severe storm.

Eddie Taaffe says work is ongoing to prepare the town if the River Slaney bursts its banks once again this winter.

Speaking on the Morning Mix, the Chief Executive outlined what has been done so far:

"We secured €2.6 million in interim flood defence works from the OPW earlier this year.

"With that we're putting in some temporary walls like raising the one on Abbey Quay to give it that extra protection and we've also built a flood wall on the Island Road car park.

"We've also put in some temporary bunds in and around the swimming pool and down around the Promenade.

"We have also secured some temporary aqua dams which are on order and they're due into the county in a matter of weeks which will protect the Promenade and Shannon Quay.

"When they arrive, we will have a level of protection from flooding."

However, a long term solution is still a long while off and Mr Taaffe admits they are fighting a losing battle as things stand.

"I have to be realistic, these interim works won't give the full level of protection and they won't be able to give the level of protection for the very significant flood that we saw in February.

"But it will be able to protect us while we're waiting on the permanent flood scheme."

Mr Taaffe says the council will be hosting a test emergency scheme to try out these flood defence mechanisms to see what level of protection they can give.

"We'll be completing those works over the next month or so and then when we have the aqua dams in place, we will be running a major emergency exercise in Enniscorthy to actually show the people what these temporary protection measures will look like."

In terms of a long term solution, Mr Taaffe also admitted that's a long way off but they are still on track.

"The first phase is the replacement of the Seamus Rafter Bridge with a new bridge south of the town is due to go into the planning consent process early next year.

"That realistically is going to take a year to get through that process so in the meantime, we are securing the design team for the next phase of it.

"So it's still a complex project and it's going to be a number of years away so that's why we've been successful in getting these interim flood works."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.