POLITICAL REACTION:MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has defended the handling of the flood crisis in Cork and insisted the focusmust now be on restoring water supplies.
Mr Gormley visited flood-dam- aged areas in the city on Saturday morning and insisted that the local emergency plan had worked well. He praised all those involved in the emergency services for their work over the previous 48 hours.
But Mr Gormley refused to be drawn into the controversy over the ESB’s decision to release water from Inniscarra dam, eight miles upstream. Asked about the views of local residents on Lancaster Quay, who criticised the ESB for failing to provide proper warning of the impending release of water, Mr Gormley insisted that “[the ESB] co-operated fully with the emergency plan”. He pointed out the ESB had informed Cork City Council, Cork County Council and the emergency services early on Thursday morning, and issued a media alert.
In its statement, the ESB said that following “unprecedented levels of water coming down- stream”, large volumes of water had to be released in order to avoid “the certainty of larger and uncontrolled flooding”.
Asked whether the ESB had done enough by simply informing the local authorities, Mr Gormley replied: “That was in the context of the emergency plan, and emer- gency planning has worked. Now is not the time for recriminations, now is the time to get on and deal with the issue.”
Fine Gael spokesman on the environment Phil Hogan said that Mr Gormley should establish an independent inquiry into the cause of the flooding, including looking at the role of local authorities and the ESB in monitoring rainfall and water levels in the river Lee.
“It’s clear that substantial resources will be required by Cork city and county local authorities to deal with the extensive damage to infrastructure in the region, as well as damage to property, house- holders and businesses,” said Mr Hogan, who also visited Cork on Saturday.
Mr Hogan said that Fine Gael will this week bring a privatemem- ber’s motion proposing the devel- opment of a national flood warning system.
Meanwhile, Minister for For- eign Affairs Micheál Martin defended Cork City Council, amid criticism from some business owners that the council did not provide sandbags. “There were sandbags delivered by the Army . . . [but] there was prioriti- sation when this thing was at its peak. The most important thing was the Mercy hospital.
” Cork city manager Joe Gavin said he wanted “to concentrate all resources . . . on the consequences of what happened. There will be time enough to look [at] what hap- pened when this crisis is over, so we won’t be looking at those kind of issues at this stage.
“The tide had no impact on what happened this weekend. It was solely down to the volume that came down the river on foot of the volume of rain that fell. The ESB said it was an event that could happen once in 800 years.”
