Farmers in south Galway have appealed to the Office of Public Works to take immediate action as thousands of acres lay underwater yesterday.
The Irish Farmers Association claimed the flooding in the area was almost as bad as in 19941995, when 6,000 acres were affected.
Mr Michael Kelly, chairman of the IFA's South Galway branch, said about "5,000 acres has been swamped this time. The OPW has to get down here and see it. We don't want any more studies. We want real work." Yeats' tower at Thoor Ballylee was cut off and surrounded by about 6 feet of water. Secondary roads approaching it were flooded and houses were inaccessible. The rail link between Limerick and Athenry was closed.
A farmer in the Newpark area was trying to find a boatman to rescue two of his cattle from an island after they broke out and were washed away. Mr Kelly said urgent work was required to divert the Owenshree river, which runs off the Derry Brien mountains and was the source of much of the damage. Afforestation had contributed to rising levels during bad weather spells, he said, and the river needed to be diverted to the sea at Kilcolgan.
More than 200 families were affected by the 1995 floods in Gort-Ardrahan, which cost an estimated £10 million. Seven of the most affected families were paid a total of £300,000 under a relocation scheme, and the Red Cross gave humanitarian aid from a European Commission fund.
At the time there was much criticism of Galway County Council's decision to give planning approval for houses constructed on karstic land known to be liable to flooding.
Five small-scale schemes to help drain the area should be carried out, using the £2.5 million allocation in the last Budget for the area, Mr Kelly said.
The OPW's consultancy study of south Galway, commissioned after the 1994-95 floods, put a £22 million price tag on remedial drainage works, and said ecological constraints made the high cost of alleviation unrealistic.
The area's wetlands comprise turloughs, marshes and lakes unmatched anywhere else, and include a remarkable selection of plant species and communities. The consultants said only the smallest of the proposed engineering schemes, to alleviate flooding in Tarmon, could be fully recommended on economic criteria.
The Department of the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands ruled this out as it proposed to designate it as a Special Area of Conservation.
The IFA has condemned the commissioning of yet another OPW study of the problem. ESB crews will remain on alert this weekend as further severe weather is expected, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Lightning caused power cuts on Sunday night in the Limerick/ Ennis area but supplies were soon restored.
The lightning also caused black-outs in Castlebar, Co Mayo, Falcarragh, Co Donegal, and Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
