Storm Chandra: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-10
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PJ Murphy (FG), Agricultural Panel

Today and for weeks to come they will be living with the mess and smell caused by floodwaters coming into their homes and businesses. I come from the west. On this occasion my area was not affected, but in south Galway we are no strangers to the devastating effects of flooding on family homes, farms and businesses, and day-to-day life in our area when the roads and railway line remained closed due to floodwater for days and weeks on end. This has happened on a number of occasions in our area over the last 30 years.
We can all see that there is a change in weather patterns, and in particular in rainfall patterns in recent years but river channels through many of our towns and cities remain exactly as they were built over two centuries ago. In my local area in south Galway, in the town of Gort and the local village of Craughwell, we have seen at first hand how successful in-stream channel improvement works can be. They have made a massive difference in preventing flooding of the towns and villages concerned. We have the engineering expertise in this country. We have the necessary experts and we have the people who can carry out the work that is needed. Unfortunately, progress is being made at a painfully slow pace. After nine years of designing and planning, and €4.3 million later, the south Galway flood relief scheme remains trapped in an environmental purgatory. It has been calculated by the competent professional bodies that in a one-in-100-year high water flood, 50 to 75 homes in my area of south Galway will flood, 175 homes and 46 businesses will be cut off for prolonged periods, and 19 rural south Galway communities will be isolated. The M18 motorway will close due to being under water. The Galway to Limerick railway line will also close due to it being under water. Crowe Street in the town of Gort will be underwater for a prolonged period. This is not something that might or might not happen. This is something that we know will happen if the south Galway flood relief scheme is not progressed.
We know that all of this is inevitable yet we continue to lose valuable time ticking environmental boxes and carrying out reports instead of getting on with this project that we know will inevitably need to be done, one way or another. When it comes to the delivery of the flood mitigation project, a major change in pace is needed. As a matter of urgency, we need to find a means of bypassing the environmental bureaucracy that is getting in the way and preventing this work from going ahead. It is work that is inevitably going to have to happen. I urge the Minister to find a way that we can move around the planning bureaucracy so that we can get the machines on the ground to progress the work that will inevitably have to happen over the course of the next generation.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10