Homes built on floodplains in the future will be afforded no Government protection, the Minister in charge of flood defences in the State has warned.
Minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), Kevin Boxer Moran, said the State is now financing very expensive flood defence projects for houses and apartments built on land known to be prone to flooding. He warned councils that this situation would not be allowed to continue into the future.
“If you build on a floodplain, then I won’t protect you,” said Moran.
“I’m making this clear. I’m appealing to every local authority, particularly when the pressure comes on now, in terms of homes to be built; if a house is built on a floodplain, it will not be defended.
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“We will lead from the front; we can’t go back on this.”
He said some of the houses destroyed by flooding he has visited, during his two stints in the OPW portfolio, were built on floodplains.
“We have to realise that what we’re facing now is an enormous task. And it is something that we can’t do overnight, or get everything done quickly,” he said.
He said there was an onus on the State to provide defences for existing buildings that were built on floodplains, but that situation would change for any buildings developed in the future on land prone to flooding, historically.
Separately, it emerged that the project to develop the State’s early flood-warning system will be managed in future by the Office of Emergency Planning in the Department of Defence.
The system known as the National Flood Forecasting and Warnings Service (NFFWS) was being developed by the OPW and Met Éireann, with its flood forecasting service in operation from 2024.
However, since last year, responsibility for developing the system has been transferred to the emergency office.
The development of the forecasting system is moving at a “glacial” pace with an underspend of €2.4 million in the allocation for the project in 2025, said Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly.
Minister for Housing James Browne said in a recent parliamentary reply €1.9 million had been spent in 2025 out of an allocation of €4.3 million.
Browne told the Kildare North TD €6.9 million was spent between 2018 and 2024 on the establishment and development of the flood forecasting centre at Met Éireann – a further €1.9 million in 2025, with an allocation of €7 million for 2026 “on the basis of stage II of the NFFWS progressing”.
“That’s €1.9 million on an allocation of €4.3 million. So what are they going to do with €7 million this year if they can’t spend last year’s budget?” asked Farrelly.
