In the past 9 years we have had 3 Taoisigh and 4 ministers for the OPW. Each time there is a handover and with a passage of time, the importance of this project is threatened with dilution.
For decades, Gort and the surrounding South Galway region have faced persistent challenges from recurring flood events. Solutions have been called for as far back as 1960 and while initiatives like the South Galway (Gort Lowlands) Flood Relief Scheme provide a glimmer of hope, the reality is that the community remains under significant threat from future flooding. With the region’s unique hydrological systems and a history of devastating floods, and the increase in flooding risk due to Climate change, the urgency for effective solutions has never been greater.
A History of devastating flooding
South Galway’s landscape, characterized by its karst topography and turloughs, creates a perfect storm for flooding. Significant events in 1994/1995, 2009, 2014, and most notably 2015/2016, caused widespread devastation:
Homes and businesses were submerged, displacing families and crippling local economies.
Farmlands were inundated, leading to long-term agricultural losses.
Infrastructure, including roads and rail, was rendered unusable, isolating communities for weeks and months and adding 100’s of kilometres to weeks school runs.
For more indepth impacts of the flooding the following reports have been done across the communities:
Despite these events spurring public outcry and demands for action spanning 6 decades, little has changed on the ground to prevent future catastrophes.
It has been predicted that over 70 homes in the South Galway Region would be at high risk of flooding, and all transport infrastructure including roads (regional roads and motorway) and rail and would be flooded.
We are now 9 years on from those devastating floods of 2015/2016 and we have had a few near misses, especially in 2020. It’s only a matter of time until we get a devastating flood again.
Flood Relief Scheme Progress
The South Galway/Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme was launched in 2017 to address these issues, aiming to mitigate the risk of flooding through advanced engineering solutions.
This project has gone through extensive surveys, feasibility studies, and public consultations and it has passed many significant milestones – more than any previous scheme. As of 2024, it is nearing its final public consultation phase. However, progress has been slow, and no tangible flood relief solutions have been implemented since the last major flood of 2015/2016.
This delay has left out communities vulnerable, with many people fearing every winter that they will be subjected to another devastating flood. This is persistent worry every year as the winter storms move in.
Why has this been so slow?
The unique challenges of South Galway’s hydrology make flood management particularly complex:
Karst Landscape/Turloughs: Water flows underground through a network of caves and channels, making traditional drainage systems ineffective and making it difficult to understand the flow of water in the underground caverns.
Climate Change: Increased rainfall and extreme weather patterns exacerbate the risk of flooding and there are new considerations to assess and integrate into an overall solution.
Environmental Challenges: As this is a very unique landscape, many of its unique features, karst landscape and Turolughs, Galway Bay are also Special Areas of Conservation(SACs), Specially protected ares (SPAs) and this puts much more demands on environmetnal impact assessments.
Overall, the development of accurate hydrological models and flood risk assessments has been a slow and challenging process, significantly delaying the implementation of protective measures. These delays have been compounded by the environmental complexities of the region, which is home to a multitude of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). Balancing flood mitigation efforts with the need to protect these ecologically sensitive zones has added layers of difficulty to an already intricate project.
Why is there still a threat?
The threat of flooding continues to loom large because the South Galway Flood Relief Scheme remains in the design phase, with no tangible infrastructure in place to address the region’s flooding challenges. Crucially, no effective flood relief measures have been implemented to transport excess floodwaters to the sea, which is a vital component of mitigating the recurring inundation.
This leaves the region vulnerable, as floodwaters have no controlled pathway to disperse, resulting in prolonged flooding of homes, businesses, farmlands, and roadways. Without a functional drainage network or water diversion strategy, the natural karst landscape exacerbates the situation by trapping water in turloughs and underground channels, causing flooding to persist over extended periods.
Until the scheme progresses to execution, this critical gap in flood management remains unaddressed, leaving South Galway at the mercy of extreme weather events.
We have been very lucky in the past number of years – we have all seen the increase of flooding events in recent times from the recent floods in Valencia to our most recent flooding in Donegal, Mayo, Limerick and Cork. (Storm Bert)
Call to Action
This delay has left our communities increasingly frustrated, as there is a fear that the scheme may end up as just another expensive collection of multiple reports gathering dust on a shelf, like so many initiatives before it. The region has seen countless studies and surveys conducted over the decades, yet real on-the-ground solutions remain incomplete. Without a proper solution uncontrolled floodwaters will result in prolonged flooding of homes, businesses, farmlands, and roadways.
As our communities remain under threat, we must rally for continued support for flood relief solutions by Government at National Level. In the past 9 years we have had 3 Taoisigh and 4 ministers for the OPW. Each time there is a handover and with a passage of time, the importance of this project is threatened with dilution.
With elections approaching, it is crucial to engage with candidates and demand that flood prevention remains a priority. Our elected will representatives need to represent our flooding solution importance at national level.
We need our next government to be ready, and ensure that we get ministerial confirmation from the Minister of the OPW as soon as the scheme lands on their plate!
This is not just about protecting homes and businesses; it’s about safeguarding the very fabric of South Galway’s community and heritage.
We need to ensure our public representatives keep the South Galway flooding solution on the agenda at National Level
Hope for the Future
While the challenges are immense, the South Galway Flood Relief Scheme represents a pathway toward lasting solutions. It is approaching its final stage in the coming months, the farthest any proposed scheme has come. It is a real solution backed by comprehensive analysis with a high likelihood to reduce the risk of future flooding significantly. However, this requires urgency, funding, and political will.
Together, the people of Gort and South Galway have to advocate for the protection they deserve. Let’s ensure that the voices of our communities are heard and that no one has to endure the devastation of another flood!
Please share if you can.
– David Murray, South Galway Flood Relief Committee
In 2016, I met with Sean Canney, the then new Minister for OPW and Flooding to, try and understand how we could find a solution to the devastating flooding in South Galway in the previous winter (2015). At the time the Government was implementing National Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) plans throughout the country but none had been tabled for South Galway. The minister wanted to get South Galway plans on the table but was advised that CFRAM projects could take 8-10 years to implement. The minister liaised with Galway County council and, very importantly because of the complexity of the hydrology of the area,with Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) and Trinity College to kick-start the South Galway/Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme. In July 2016, the OPW asked Galway County Council to proceed with a CFRAM-like project aimed at solving the extreme flooding situation in South Galway. There was also significant collaboration between Galway County Council, OPW, engineering consultants and the South Galway Flood Relief Committee. On September 17th 2017, close to 1 year later, the South Galway/Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme was launched with an extensive brief and tenders for the engineering and environmental consultants complete. The consultants were selected in December 2017.
Daunting Complexity
The first phase of the scheme was to do a feasibility study to see if there was a potential flood-relief solution for South Galway that could cover cost-benefit and environvmental considerations. Several reports had been done in the past but all failed to produce a feasible solution. A previous study was completed in 2010 where an engineered overland flood overflow channel between Coole Lough and Kinvara at an estimated cost of €48 was deemed infeasible.
For the new scheme, it was back to the drawing board. There wasn’t enough known about the detailed hydrology of the whole South Galway, North Clare area and the scale of complexity of the project was daunting – The flooding assessment had to take in a significant portion of South Galway – 470 km2, 9+ Turloughs, several underground rivers and 10+ special areas of conservation (SACs).
The study area for the Gort Lowlands/South Galway Flood Relief Scheme 470 km2
A key part of a comprehensive feasibility was to develop a full hydrology model for the complete catchment and involved advanced and innovative hydrological analysis techniques by GSI and Trinity college. This enabled the design consultants to understand the flood risk impacts of the area including contingencies for climate change – which showed worsening flooding in the future. It also allowed them to assess different solution options to assess their impact.
In August 2020, 3 years after the project kick-off, against all odds, a feasible solution proposal was found that met the cost-benefit and environmental criteria. This was the farthest any flood relief project has been in the past. This solution wasn’t a deviation from what many people had known – it wasn’t proposing a concrete channel from mountain to sea but it was all about managing extreme levels of turlough and creating the right linkage between them, mainly profiling the channels to get better flows at the right level.
Detailed Design
While a positive feasible solution was identified – the next phase was to work on a detailed design and part of this was getting feedback from the public and landowners.
Amid the background of COVID-19, the full feasibility report and an emerging preferred solution was published in February 2021 and a public consultation was organised. The public consultation, which was done virtually, had to be extended so that the project team could meet with landowners on site and get feedback ‘on-the-ground’. While this added several months of delay, the SGFRC felt that this was critical to the project and strongly pushed for this. The feedback from the public consultation resulted in tweaking design and sometimes moving or removing proposals.
The engineering consultants continued to work through the detail, and having precise exact locations, depths, widths of overground channels from Blackrock to Kinvara. This then would inform 2 key aspects of the final proposal.
Project costings on the removal of 200,000 tonnes of land to created profiled channels.
Knowing the location and the expected flows, the environmental consultants could then start the detailed Environmental impact assessments.
In 2022, as the channel locations/dimensions were finalised, geological surveys across the catchment had to be completed to inform the cost of excavation etc. A whole range of environmental studies and reports were also started. There was also a significant investment in a report on the salinity impacts on the scheme in Kinvara Bay. An agronomist was dispatched and spent weeks meeting with landowners to discuss the project and arterial drainage process with landowners. One of the key findings of the detailed design is the M18 motorway does not have the right culvert capacity or level to manage flooding overflow despite local and OPW reports being furnished to the TII (NRA at the time) in 2010. This has created a significant risk the project which has been brought to the Dail (Via Deputy Ciaran Cannon) and is now in discussion between TII and Galway County Council.
In early 2023, some updates to the climate action plan required a significant addition of long-term climate changes to the environmental impact analysis. This involved the design consultants/GSI and Trinity doing another detailed assessment with the environmental consultants of the new hydrology proposal. There were additional studies commissioned and Turlough experts engaged to ensure a well informed and comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR). This has been the main burden of work over the past 2-3 years.
Final Public Consultation
At his stage, the engineering design is complete and project costings/savings are well understood. The final gating item is completion of the EIAR. This is mostly complete and is undergoing review currently before the public consultation. The public consultation will involve the publishing of the Preferred Scheme design and hosting this in the locality and is estimated to be in April 20234. This will be open for the public to give feedback.
Next Steps
There is a period after the public consultation for some design tweaks to incorporate additional public feedback and the Finalised Design/EIAR will then be published. As this project is being done under the Arterial Drainage act, there is no granting of planning permission as with our standard development planning. The project will be submitted to the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPE (currently Patrick O’ Donovan) for ministerial confirmation. This is where the Minister can make an order to confirm the scheme. The South Galway Flood Relief Committee met with the Minister in July 2023 to seek his assurance on support for this critical project.
A long road
Due to the unique underground hydrology and huge number of Special Areas of Conservation, this project has been an extremely complex and time-consuming-out process. It has also been very frustrating and disheartening for the local community as we all want this to progress to a full solution. It is very difficult to get an understanding of ‘work being done’ when there is nothing new on the table. I’ve tried to give various updates over the past 6 years to help communicate where we are in the process and itemizing the ongoing work – but ultimately, we need ‘diggers in the ground’ at a proof that we are indeed progressing.
This project has however, never once stalled – from its inception, it has been constant work in the background and we have to acknowledge the persistence and diligence of Enda Gallagher the project lead of Galway County Council as he has navigated this project through various challenges. Also thanks to our diligent Councillors who ensure that this topic keeps top priority in the municipal meetings.
Unfortunately, the threat for significant flooding has not been minimized at all. We have just been very lucky so far since winter 2015 that we haven’t had another repeat of the same devastation. We are still very much at risk each winter and we need to ensure that this flood relief solution is delivered.
Here is looking forward to the final public consultation and onto the finalized design in the coming months as we continue toward our goal of getting a flood-relief scheme in place for our community
If this penalty application gets through in December – the Irish Government will have to pay over €4,168,000 into the ‘European Union own resources’ account and then continue to pay €10,000 per day thereafter.
In 2003, The Derrybrien Windfarm Developers (ESB – 95% owned by Irish Government) didn’t do a proper Environment Impact Analysis for their development and proceeded with development and caused a massive landslide
In 2008 : After analysis the European Courts ruled against Ireland with a court order to reassess the Environmental Impacts and put in proper mitigation in place.
In 2008, the Irish authorities informed the Commission that the wind farm operator (ESB) had agreed to provide an updated environmental impact assessment
In Jan 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a statement which indicated that Ireland would face fines of over €2m. The court stated that even at this late stage, a full EIA must be conducted, which must include full consultation with residents, industry and other relevant stakeholders.
In April 2019, a That leads up to last Monday when the CJEU met in Luxembourg on the case. The full contingent of Judges (15) were there to listen to Ireland’s progress since January last year – it wasn’t great and the Irish Government was harshly critizied as it had not acted to implement the earlier judgment and there was quite some disbelief that Ireland could/would not act more decisively against a 95% state owned company. (ESB)
Before we dive into the money – an interesting point to consider is that Richard Bruton Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment is also responsible the the ESB (well 95% responsible anyway) and obviously responsible for the Environment – so – this should have been easy as the buck stopped there. After the April 2019 Judgement, frustrated by Government in-action I compiled a set of questions that I wanted the get answers to:
What progress has been made over the past 11 year and specifically, what actual progress has made in the past year, since the EU indicated potential fines of €2Million and 12K/day thereafter?
Why does Ireland seem unprepared and unprofessional in this. (To quote an EU environment enforcement officer ” There was quite some disbelief that IE could/would not act more decisively against a 95% state owned company. ” What is causing this delay?
As its likely that we will now receive harsh fines – Who will be footing this bill? Will this be the ESB or the Irish Government?
What are the Governments plans to rectify this and when will this happen?
In order to get clarity I asked our local Fianna Fail TD, Deputy Anne Rabbitte to help get some clarification here and I asked her to frame some Parliamentary questions about this to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. This she did and this was the response from the Ceann Comhairle
“I regret to inform you that I have to disallow the (questions) … The Minister has no official responsibilities to Dail Eireann for this matter and is a matter for the ESB which is independent in its functions.”
We are not allowed to ask questions about a potential large penalty to be imposed on the Irish Government by the European Court of Justice on an environmental infringement. We are told we have to leave it to the ESB, a company 95% owned by the Irish Government, who promised to carry out an Environmental Impact assessment over 11 years ago because it is independent in its functions.
I can see how the European Court of Justice as critical of Irish Government governance = tail wagging dog
Potential Penalties
This is only an application and the final judgement will be given in a few months time, likely be the end of the year. This application has proposed
A lump-sum fine calculated at a rate of €1000/day from the date of the Court Order to the date of final judgement
A daily penalty of €10,000/day from the date of final judgement until the matter is fully resolved.
This isn’t news (we have always known) that this was coming down the road – ESB could have avoided this – The Irish Government could have avoided this by just doing the EIA.
If we say the final judgement will be 1st December 2019. That’s exactly 4168 days since the Court Order. (3rd July 2008)
If this penalty application gets through in December – the Irish Government will have to pay over €4,168,000 into the ‘European Union own resources’ account and then continue to pay €10,000 per day thereafter.
Note : This amount is 3 times the normal amount we should be paying because of the lack of response – Ireland got the maximum multiplier factor of 3 for this.
How does this relate to flooding in South Galway?
The original EIA of the wind-farm indicated that there would be no additional drainage on the 4sq KM site on the main Slieve Aughty Peak. After the landslide happened the developers put in place a ‘Robust-Drainage‘ Scheme, which involved digging 6ft x 8ft drains from each of the 71 turbine bases . Overall, the drainage of the site was impacted by:
200 Hectares of forest was clear-felled
Over 30 km+ of drains were dug
Over 17km of roads were constructed
71 turbine bases were dug out and constructed
With no impact assessment – how knows the effect the wind-farm has on the drainage but if you now consider this picture you can see why Derrybrien, Gort and South Galway communities should be concerned.
The severe flooding in Gort in 2009 was from the Gort River which comes down from this area.
The South Galway Flood Relief Committee want the same thing as Europe here – a proper assessment on the impacts of mountain operations in this area and retrospective mitigation to ensure that potential flooding impacts from the wind-farm are mitigated in some way.
The real frustration here is that rather than than investing in flood mitigation ware are throwing away money having to pay these penalties because organizations that could be contributing to the flooding won’t do the proper assessments and the Irish Government is standing idly by as money pours down the drain – Meanwhile the South Galway Flood Relief project has a risk of not progressing because it could be deemed to be too costly
This is something that we need to get vocal about as this is our money we are wasting and our flooding solution that could be in crisis. Please share!
Thanks,
-David Murray
For more information on the Derrybrien Windfarm Saga :
Nearly eleven years after the floods of 2015/16, South Galway finally has a detailed programme – but planning is still a year away, and the climate signals for winter 2026/27 deserve attention.
It has been nearly eleven years since the devastating floods of winter 2015/16 brought South Galway to a standstill. Homes were flooded or threatened. Roads were closed and farms remained submerged for months. Communities around Gort, Coole, Kiltartan, Ballylee, Cahermore, Kinvara and across the region were isolated or forced into enormous diversions.
Met Éireann’s long-term rainfall records show that winter 2015/16 was the wettest Irish winter in a record extending back to 1851.
Out of that disaster came the South Galway/Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme.
Today, after years of engineering studies, hydrological modelling, environmental surveys and consultations – and more than €5 million spent getting the project through its preliminary stages – we have had delay after delay in what is, unquestionably, a very complex project.
In May 2026, after receiving news of further delays, the South Galway Flood Relief Committee (SGFRC) said the project was off the rails and asked Galway County Council for a plan. A real plan: something achievable, trackable and transparent.
We finally have that.
Having a detailed plan is welcome. The timing, however, is not good news. Neither are some of the climate signals ahead of the coming winter.
The bottom line is that South Galway will remain essentially unprotected for several more winters – and the climate signals ahead of winter 2026/27 deserve attention.
A scheme that was supposed to be built years ago
The story began after the floods of 2015/16. In July 2016, the OPW asked Galway County Council to progress a CFRAM-style flood relief project for South Galway. The project brief followed in 2017, with engineering and environmental consultants appointed later that year. Nobody underestimated the difficulty.
The study area covers approximately 470 km², incorporating turloughs, underground rivers, swallow holes and more than ten European-designated conservation sites. Developing a hydrological model capable of explaining how water moves through this extraordinary karst landscape was a major scientific undertaking.
Nevertheless, the original expectations were dramatically different from where we find ourselves today.
In October 2019, a parliamentary reply stated that hydrological modelling was due to be completed before the end of that year, with feasibility and route selection expected in early 2020. If the scheme proved acceptable environmentally and on cost-benefit grounds, construction was considered capable of commencing in 2021, with an estimated construction period of 18 months.
Had anything close to that programme been achieved, the scheme could have been substantially in place by 2022 or 2023.
Instead, in August 2026, we have not yet reached the planning consent process.
There has been real progress
It is important to acknowledge this. This project has not been sitting untouched on somebody’s desk. A potentially feasible scheme was identified in 2020. The emerging preferred scheme followed in 2021. Detailed engineering, ground investigations, environmental surveys, climate-change analysis and extraordinarily complex hydrological modelling followed.
The emerging scheme proposes a network of channel and flow interventions stretching across the lowlands, connecting major flood-storage areas and ultimately allowing excess floodwater to move towards Galway Bay.
The difficulty has increasingly centred on environmental assessment and the requirements necessary to secure consent. Interconnecting South Galway’s turloughs is a key part of the overall solution, while many of those turloughs form part of internationally protected habitats. The project therefore has to demonstrate that changes in flood levels – and, critically, in the duration of inundation – will not adversely affect those habitats.
That question has generated another lengthy sequence of analysis.
Following meetings with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in January and February 2025, a Hydrological Assessment Report was finalised and issued in May 2025. NPWS requested further information in July 2025. The engineering and ecology teams subsequently undertook further flood-duration analysis and ecological assessment.
Dr Stephen Waldren, a national authority on turloughs, was appointed to address the specific concerns raised by NPWS. The July 2026 project update records his opinion that the proposed scheme can be progressed without significantly affecting turlough habitat. That is a very important development.
Mott MacDonald also stated in the July update that it considers there is now sufficient information available to inform a robust Natura Impact Statement (NIS). There is therefore reason for optimism that this particular obstacle can finally be overcome.
The timetable now
Following repeated concerns from the SGFRC about continuing delays, Galway County Council and the project team have now presented a much more detailed programme.
Date
Milestone
4 September 2026
Updated Options Assessment Report and Cost Benefit Analysis
16 October 2026
EIAR and NIS submitted for review; draft CEMP and mitigation
1 January 2027
EIAR, NIS and draft Construction Environmental Management Plan completed
23 April 2027
OPW Approval Gate 1 and end of Stage 1
June-August 2027
Preparation and review of planning documents
3 September 2027
Commencement of the planning consent process
That last date needs to sink in.
September 2027 is not the date construction starts. It is the proposed date on which the planning consent process begins.
The project team’s July presentation indicates that the Planning and Development Act route can involve a 12-18 month planning process. So, for a project initiated following the floods of 2015/16, we are potentially looking at 2028 or beyond before major construction could realistically begin.
The timetable once discussed construction beginning in 2021. Six years later, the new timetable has us beginning the planning process in late 2027.
That is the scale of the delay.
A difficult winter could be ahead
This would be concerning in any year. We have been very fortunate over the past eleven years – despite a number of near misses – not to have experienced a repeat of the severe flooding of 2015/16. The worry returns to affected communities every winter. This year there are additional reasons to pay attention.
The winter that triggered this entire project – 2015/16 – coincided with one of the strongest El Niño events on record and became Ireland’s wettest winter in the long-term rainfall series extending back to 1851.
Now another exceptional El Niño is developing.
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center reported on 13 August 2026 that El Niño is strengthening, with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event during the Northern Hemisphere autumn and winter of 2026/27. NOAA currently assigns a 70% chance that the October-December 2026 event will reach a level exceeding previous El Niño events in its record dating back to 1950.
Experimental modelling from NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory is also producing an exceptionally strong signal. All 30 members of its July SPEAR ensemble produced a peak at least competitive with the strongest El Niño events of the past century. This is experimental modelling, not a deterministic forecast, but it adds to the reason for concern.
The Pacific is not the only ocean displaying exceptional warmth. Copernicus reported that July 2026 had the highest sea-surface temperature ever recorded for July across the oceans. Around Europe, record-high July sea temperatures were observed along the Atlantic coast and in the western Mediterranean, associated with widespread strong or severe marine heatwave conditions.
That matters because the Atlantic is the main driver of Irish weather. Warmer sea-surface temperatures can provide more moisture to weather systems. Taken together with the developing El Niño, these conditions justify concern about the potential for a wet and stormy winter.
There is important uncertainty here. Met Éireann cautions that El Niño’s influence on Ireland and Europe is comparatively weak, highly variable and not robust. Seasonal forecasts also have much lower skill than short-range forecasts. At the same time, Met Éireann has said the strengthening El Niño could increase the chance of wetter and windier weather over the coming months.
So this is not a prediction of catastrophe. It is a warning about risk.
South Galway does not need one extraordinary storm
The catastrophic South Galway floods of 2015/16 were not simply caused by one afternoon of torrential rain. They developed as repeated Atlantic weather systems delivered rainfall onto an increasingly saturated catchment. Strom
Turloughs rose and their storage capacity disappeared. Subsequent rainfall then had fewer places to go. That is the vulnerability of South Galway.
After almost eleven years, the fundamental situation on the ground remains unchanged. There is still no completed regional flood-relief infrastructure capable of safely moving the extreme volumes of water envisaged by the scheme through the lowlands towards the sea.
We have a much better understanding of the region and vastly better models. We have thousands of pages of reports. We understand the hydrology better than at any point in the project’s history.
We have a feasible engineering solution. We have extensive environmental analysis. We now even have a detailed programme.
But the weather does not care about any of this. We do not yet have a working solution.
This is not about blaming the people doing the work
While there has been enormous frustration with the development of this scheme, there is a danger in simplifying the story.
The engineering and environmental challenges facing this project are enormous. Galway County Council, the OPW, Stantec/Ryan Hanley, Mott MacDonald, Trinity College Dublin, Geological Survey Ireland and the specialists involved have undertaken an extraordinary amount of work.
The community understands that environmental law cannot simply be bypassed because a project is urgent. Protecting South Galway’s unique turlough habitats is not an inconvenience; it is a legal requirement and part of protecting what makes this landscape extraordinary.
But acknowledging the complexity is not the same as accepting an indefinitely expanding programme. By 2020 a potentially feasible solution had emerged. Six years later we are still completing the environmental documentation required to get the scheme into planning.
That delivery system must be questioned. After almost eleven years, the resulting timetable is no longer acceptable.
We may already have run out of time for this winter
The SGFRC has repeatedly warned that the greatest risk created by these delays is not simply financial. Our communities do not lie awake worrying about the Cost Benefit Analysis. They worry about what the next winter will bring. They worry that they are living with a flood risk that any sufficiently severe winter could trigger and every additional winter is another roll of the dice.
For almost eleven years we have been extraordinarily fortunate that South Galway has not experienced a repeat of 2015/16. Eventually that luck will run out.Nobody can responsibly say today that winter 2026/27 will produce another catastrophic South Galway flood. But equally, nobody can responsibly ignore the risk signals.
A potentially historic El Niño is strengthening. Ocean temperatures are exceptionally high. There are indications of an increased chance of wetter and windier conditions. And South Galway enters another winter with essentially the same flood vulnerability that it had in December 2015.
That combination should concentrate the minds of everyone concerned.
The programme must now become a commitment
There is at least one positive difference today. For the first time in some time, we have a detailed roadmap.
EIAR and NIS review in October 2026.
Completion of the EIAR, NIS and draft CEMP in January 2027.
OPW Approval Gate 1 in April 2027.
Planning documentation during summer 2027.
Planning consent process commencing in September 2027.
Those dates now need to mean something. They cannot become another series of dates that quietly move by three months, then six months, then another year, as has happened before.
The community has been patient, and we in the South Galway Flood Relief Committee understand the extraordinary complexity of this project. But patience will not protect a house from floodwater, and reports will not keep a farmyard from flooding.
After almost eleven years, South Galway critically needs the one thing it still does not have: the flood relief scheme in the ground.
As we look towards winter 2026/27, there is an uncomfortable possibility we have to acknowledge: we may have spent so long preparing for the next major flood that the flood gets here first.
Flood relief should be treated as critical infrastructure
We can still take steps that may help this project move more quickly.
The Critical Infrastructure Act 2026 was signed into law on 25 June 2026. It provides for Government to designate particular projects or programmes as critical infrastructure. The legislation imposes duties on relevant public bodies dealing with designated projects, and the Government has described designation as putting projects at the “top of the queue” for faster processing and decision-making. It does not remove existing legal or environmental requirements.
Projects are not automatically designated. In July 2026, Government designated the first nine projects and programmes under the Act, across transport, water and energy. No flood relief scheme was included in that first tranche, and Government has said additional projects are intended to be designated.
That omission is notable because, earlier in 2026, Tánaiste Simon Harris said flood relief schemes would be treated as critical infrastructure under the new legislation.
That raises an obvious question: if a flood relief scheme protecting a substantial area with a documented history of catastrophic flooding is not a candidate for critical-infrastructure designation, then what is?
The SGFRC will therefore be pressing Government to designate the South Galway (Gort Lowlands) Flood Relief Scheme as a critical infrastructure project.
We should be precise about what designation can and cannot do. It cannot replace the EIAR, NIS, OPW approvals, planning assessment or environmental law. But the Act is expressly designed to require relevant public bodies to prioritise and accelerate their functions in relation to designated projects. With South Galway still approaching those approval and consenting stages, there is a strong case for seeking designation now rather than waiting until the planning application has already been lodged.
A designation now would signal national priority and could help ensure that, as the project moves through the remaining approvals and into planning, the responsible public bodies allocate the coordination, resources and urgency that an eleven-year-old flood relief project requires.
We ask people across South Galway to contact their elected representatives and ask that the South Galway (Gort Lowlands) Flood Relief Scheme be considered for designation as critical infrastructure.
What happens now?
This is not a prediction that South Galway will flood this winter. Nor is it an attempt to frighten people. The scientific evidence – and the uncertainties – are set out above and referenced below.
Flooding has always been a risk in South Galway. What concerns us is that, nearly eleven years after the floods that gave birth to this project, our communities remain exposed while another potentially difficult winter approaches.
The project has not gone backwards. Considerable and valuable work has been completed. But it has taken far too long to get this far.
We now need two things.
First, Galway County Council, the OPW and the project team must deliver the new programme they have given us. The dates must stop moving.
Second, Government should consider the South Galway (Gort Lowlands) Flood Relief Scheme for designation as critical infrastructure and give this project the priority its history, scale and urgency demand.
We are asking people across South Galway to contact their TDs, councillors and Government representatives and ask one simple question:
Will you support the designation of the South Galway (Gort Lowlands) Flood Relief Scheme as critical infrastructure?
After almost eleven years, South Galway should not have to rely on another winter of good luck.
David Murray Chair, South Galway Flood Relief Committee
References
Project programme and ecology/planning milestones are taken from a presnetation by Galway County Council Project Update – July 2026, presented to the South Galway Flood Relief Committee.
In January 2025 the project team sat down with the National Parks and Wildlife Service for what was described as a helpful, informal meeting. The scope was narrow: get NPWS comfortable with proposed flow control structures on the scheme. No major concerns were raised. Everything highlighted by NPWS as a potential problem area had already been addressed by our environmental consultants. It felt like the beginning of the end of a very long road.
Eighteen months later, we are still waiting to close out that engagement. What follows is a full account of how a targeted, non-statutory pre-consultation conversation expanded into an open-ended environmental review – and why the community deserves to understand exactly what has happened.
Moving goalposts
Project team presented the full scheme and the case for flow control structures to four NPWS representatives. Scientific advisor Shane Regan requested specific hydrological diagrams. Ryan Hanley estimated two weeks to prepare. No major concerns raised. Follow-up Teams meeting agreed for three weeks’ time.
The follow-up Teams meeting was rescheduled to February 28 due to unavailability of key NPWS staff. A one-month slip at the very first hurdle.
Meeting went well. NPWS asked for a few weeks to examine the Hydrological Report. Scope expanded: NPWS also requested details of ecological methods used to map upper turlough habitat levels (UTHLs), shapefiles of UTHLs, and shapefiles of the proposed scheme outline.
Before submitting UTHL shapefiles, Motts reviewed the data and found anomalies in small areas of the study area. Additional site surveys were undertaken to ensure accuracy. Final survey completed late April — approximately two months after the February meeting.
Two months after submitting all requested information, no substantive NPWS feedback had been received. Additional bat surveys and bird surveys at the Cahercarney excess material site were ongoing. A face-to-face update meeting with the SGFRC was promised — but only after NPWS engagement was complete.
NPWS issued correspondence raising further queries focused on ecological impacts — changes to flood depth and duration in turloughs and effects on vegetation communities. The project team began updating the report to include a draft Natura Impact Statement (NIS). Response targeted for October 3.
The October 3 target was missed. Motts identified a gap: no specific research data existed on how inundation depth changes affect plant communities in turloughs at every level. TCD were asked to supply this data for four sample turloughs. New target set for October 22.
The November 7 target was missed. Motts notified the project team that their draft response may not fully allay NPWS concerns about the main conservation objectives for all turlough European sites. A new NPWS team with different expertise had identified turlough inundation periods as a key concern — something known to the project team for years but not previously pressed by NPWS.
Ryan Hanley and TCD undertook a 34-year analysis (1988–2021) using a calibrated hydrological model covering eight turloughs — examining flood levels at every 0.5m depth change, mean days per year at each level, standard deviation, and pre/post-scheme differences. Motts began reviewing results and indicated they would seek independent specialist botanical advice.
Personnel with the required level of turlough botanical expertise are in short supply. After months searching, introductory meetings were held with specialist Steven Waldron and the project team. The process of sharing reports, survey data and memos began. NPWS response now projected for end of January / early February 2026.
Steven Waldron reviewed materials and gave positive initial feedback. He recommended demonstrating the hydrological connection with the upper turlough habitat levels — not relying solely on botanical surveys. Conor is satisfied all information is already to hand; formatting into a concise report will be the challenge. Draft to be submitted to Steven within one to two weeks.
At a meeting between consultants on May 8, concerns were raised that the Hydrology Report was too technical and may not be readily understood by all parties in NPWS. Agreement reached to produce a new, simpler format report — with the technical Hydrology Report as an appendix. Both parties have commenced assembly. No NPWS response has been issued. All subsequent steps — EIAR finalisation, OPW review, public consultation — remain on hold.
Let me be direct about what that timeline means. One year ago, in early 2025, we were told public consultation was imminent. Last autumn we were given an end-of-March 2026 target.
Why this matters?
There is something important to acknowledge at the outset: the project team has not been idle. The volume of work produced since January 2025 – ecological surveys, hydrological modelling, NIS drafting, UTHL shapefiles, botanical assessments, a 34-year inundation analysis – is substantial. Enda Gallagher, Galway County Council and his colleagues are working hard on one of the most environmentally complex flood relief schemes ever attempted in Ireland.
But hard work and good intentions do not explain away what has happened to this timeline. The original NPWS engagement was originall scoped around a single technical question: are flow controls on the scheme acceptable? That question was answered – they are not being included. Yet the engagement has since blown into a full informal environmental review covering turlough habitat mapping, SAC boundaries, 34 years of inundation modelling, and now, the latest the reformatting of reports deemed too technical for NPWS to follow.
This is not an NPWS problem. The right people doing the right due diligence on a scheme that will affect European-designated habitats is exactly what the law requires. This is not a statutory requirement (at this stage, but will be later). This is a process problem. There is no cap on how far this informal engagement can expand. There is no independent arbiter of what is sufficient. Every new NPWS representative brings new questions. And because the engagement is non-statutory, none of it counts as formal consultation – it all has to happen again once planning documents are submitted.
How can we move from ‘not having enough infomration’ to ‘having too much technical information and spend 16 months in a non-mandatory part of the process with the cost of project now exceeding €5 million?
Revised Timeline
Once – if – the NPWS engagement is finally closed out, we still face: two months of Motts final review and document preparation, two months of OPW review, then public consultation, then formal planning submission. The project manager himself has written off the month of December. We are realistically looking at early 2027 for public consultation and likely 2028 before construction begins. Another two or three winters of exposure.
That is thirteen years after the devastating 2015/2026 flooding.
What needs to happen now
We are calling on the OPW and Galway County Council to set a fixed, public, contractually enforced date for the close of the NPWS engagement and the submission of the EIAR. A deadline. One with consequences for missing it. The community of South Galway has waited long enough to be treated like a project with a real delivery date.
Contact your public representatitives and demand they hold the OPW And County Council accountable for a fixed, enforceable delivery date.
The South Galway Flood Relief Scheme remains the only viable solution for our community. We are not walking away from it. But we will not stay silent about a project that has missed every single major milestone since it began, while families in this community spend every wet autumn watching weather forecasts in dread. That is not acceptable, and it should not be normalised.
The SGFRC has requested to meet with Minister Moran via Minister Canny but these is not materialised. We demand a meeting to discuss.
We will publish an update the moment the NPWS engagement is concluded. Until then – make some noise.
David Murray, Chair, South Galway Flood Relief Committee.
9 YEARS. €4.8 MILLION. STILL NO PROTECTION.. While Enniscorthy flooded for the 9th time this week, South Galway waits for a flood scheme – Are we trapped in the same bureaucratic delays ?
Last Monday morning at 4am, the River Slaney burst its banks and tore through Enniscorthy. A family with a three-week-old baby were rescued by boat from their flooded apartment. Up to 30 homes and 20 businesses were left under several feet of water. This was Enniscorthy’s ninth major flood since 2000.
There is €55 million allocated for an Enniscorthy flood relief scheme. It has been ready since 2014. But it cannot proceed because of environmental concerns over the freshwater pearl mussel. The planning application was rejected in 2022. While people’s lives are endangered and businesses are destroyed, the project remains blocked. Environmental regulations have become an absolute veto on human safety.
South Galway faces the identical fate. After nine years and €4.8 million spent on consultants, our flood relief scheme remains trapped in the same environmental purgatory.
The flooding scenario is different from Enniscorthy. While some homes face the sudden onslaught of water rising, many face the slow inevitable rise of water levels into homes after days or weeks of sandbags and pumping. It is the paralysis of entire communities as the flooding stays for months.
From the project analysis a 1 in 100 year flood event, 50 residential properties will flood with a further 23 at high risk, 175 homes and 46 businesses will be cut off for prolonged periods, and 19 rural communities will be isolated – some like Rinrush for over three months. The M18 motorway, the railway line, and the N18 will all flood. Crowe Street in Gort will be under water. Communities will be paralysed for months. Like Enniscorthy, this is inevitable.
The South Galway Flood Relief scheme is exceptionally complex. The study area is divided into 15 zones, with the main scheme consisting of five interconnected flood relief areas – Central Gort Lowlands (covering 7 zones from Blackrock to Coole to Kinvara), Gort Town, Labane Area, Roo Area, and Termon Area. The solutions involving over 16km of flood-relief channels, 303,000m³ of excavation, and 30 large culverts. This complexity means the overall environmental assessment takes considerable time to prepare and design. A huge amount of environmental surveys have been done with thousands of pages of documentation.
Because of the complexity, the Galway County Council project team have engaged with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to provide early feedback on scheme design and environmental assessments. This is not a statutory requirement of planning preparation, but a way of streamlining the final result. Get the feedback early and integrate it into the planning to save time at the end. This is best practice to avoid the Enniscorthy type of situation.
We have now had four years of consultants developing the environmental impact assessment. The NPWS was asked to review the plans and environmental assessment over a year ago. The project by and large has scaled most of the environmental hurdles (and there were many) and the feedback has largely been addressed but in July, one question on turlough impacts has demanded more analysis.
So, what should be done here? If the concern by the NPWS is ignored then this could end up in planning refusal which is what has happened in the Enniscorthy situation. If we do more analysis we prolong the planning? The project team has gone with the second option. But this is now adding another delay to the project. This has eroded the trust of the community. This seems to be a never-ending cycle of feedback and more and more delays. This could also kill the project.
The rate of progress is unacceptable as we are 10 years into this. We need to prioritise communities and develop flood relief schemes that will protect people, their property and businesses – Minister Sean Canney
The whole environmental impact assessments are causing huge frustrations and heavy planning processes that just don’t make sense in this kind of case. We have people’s health and lives at risk, we have communities isolated. We have a viable flood relief solution for South Galway and Gort Lowlands. These solutions will alleviate the horrendous flooding situation in South Galway. They will have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the environment. They will eliminate significant pollution during peak flood events and eliminate the flooding of our national parks. They will protect those things that these SACs are meant to protect.
“The flooding in Enniscorthy is a wakeup call for the rest of the country as it demonstrates how vulnerable communities are in the face of severe rainfall.’ said Minister Sean Canney, who initiated the Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme in 2016. ‘The rate of progress is unacceptable as we are 10 years into this. We need to prioritise communities and develop flood relief schemes that will protect people, their property and businesses. Communities still are living in fear when they hear the weather warnings. I will be taking this up with the OPW again to try to get meaningful progress”.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, had indicated that he just can’t just ‘wave a magic wand and just deliver flood relief schemes‘.
We will do everything we can to speed up the progress of a scheme, going through the planning process and the design and development works itself. – Taoiseach Micheál Martin
Micheál Martin was in South Galway ten years ago looking at the devestation of the floods back then – saying the same things.
We need this scheme to move forward. Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister Kevin “Boxer” Moran must step in and unblock this process. This critical project must move forward now to publication of the final Environmental Impact Assessment Report and Natura Impact Statement, proceed to public consultation, and advance to ministerial confirmation. We cannot wait for another round of feedback, another winter of risk. The Minister has the authority to drive this forward and he must use it. South Galway communities deserve the same commitment to flood protection that was promised to Enniscorthy – and both communities deserve better.
Coming up on the 10th year anniversary of the devastating floods, the South Galway Flood Relief scheme continues on a slow frustrating journey to completion. Will the next week or so moves us closer publishing the plan and final public consultation? ..
The painfully slow journey still continues for the South Galway–Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme, has had significant delays in the final stages for scheme planning. Over the past 8 years, the South Galway/Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme has faced significant and ongoing challenges, including:
The complexity of the scheme across a vast area (470 km²), with a significant number of underground connections.
The requirement for a positive cost–benefit outcome, where the benefits of the flood scheme outweigh the costs. While this has been challenging, the project has been deemed feasible.
The need to address environmental concerns. This has been a major challenge, as impacts to more than 10 SACs and turloughs must be fully analysed and mitigated.
While the project has overcome many significant hurdles and has never actually stalled the delays to overall delivery have been and continue to be very frustrating.
The project cost to date (feasibility, design, EIAR, consultation, project management) is now in excess of €4.5 million. In contrast, for most OPW flood relief schemes, the pre-construction spend is often in the hundreds of thousands to €1-2 million, not multiples of millions. This makes the South Galway scheme very different from any other flood relief project, and by far the most complex design in the history of the state.
That being said, we need now more than ever a firm drive toward delivery of the scheme. So where exactly are we? In 2020 the project made a significant milestone where the food risk assessment and inital design deemed the project feasible, reaching a stage that other South Galway Flood Relief schemes had failed on. Since then the scheme has gone through detailed design and environmental analysis. This time last year, the scheme was going through one of its last iterations and in January we reported that South Galway Flood Scheme going through final reviews and the plan was to submit draft the scheme design and EIAR and Natura Impact Statement (NIS), each a substantial body of work, for review by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in February. Because of the complex environmental aspects of advice was sought from the NPWS how can advise how the scheme impacts designated SAC sites. Engagement with NPWS at that stage was not mandatory, as there will be formal consultation once the plan and EIAR/NIS are submitted. However, this type of informal engagement is increasingly common as good practice on large, complex, environmentally sensitive projects – to avoid surprises and ensure the NIS is robust enough for the formal stage.
However, what was expected to be weeks has once again turned into months and back and forth iteration between the design and environmental consultants and the NPWS.
Over the past 6 months, the NPWS has provided feedback on the overall plan and NIS. The bulk of the feedback has been about supplying more data on Turlough levels, SAC boundaries – there have only been minor tweaks to the design based on feedback but a lot of iteration on the environmental side.
The NPWS are expected to give final feedback within the next week. This does not constitute a formal review which would be offered when the EIAR/NIS is formally published. Even at that stage, the NPWS do not actually “approve” or “reject” directly, however, their input is highly influential. The role of the NPWS at that stage is to offer scientific advice to the consenting authority (OPW and Galway County Council). By seeking this advice earlier, Galway County Council hopes to smoothen the future approvals process. In some ways this is absorbing (and preventing) a likely future delay into the current process.
If no further comments on the draft NIS are received from the NPWS, the project will move to a submission for final public consultation. To the steps are:
The EIAR will be finalised based on NPWS feedback.
The EIAR will then be submitted to the OPW for final review (which may involve some cycles).
Once the OPW signs off on the plan, it is expected that the scheme will proceed to final public consultation.
The tentative date for the final public consultation is now the end of March 2026. At this time last year the public consultation was expected in March 2025 so that’s almost a year’s delay.
This means we must endure another winter before the plan is finalised, and then likely another before construction starts.
This winter marks the 10-year anniversary of the horrendous flooding of winter 2015. We have been very lucky since then, though there have been close calls. Many other regions in the country have not been so fortunate.
September rains have already raised the turlough levels higher than normal for this time of year, so we can only hope we don’t face another wet winter and severe flooding.
It is only a matter of time before another event occurs, and the South Galway Flood Relief Project — though frustratingly slow — remains our only chance to eliminate this yearly threat.
We need commitment now more than ever to push to get the plan finalized and for construction to start.
Luckily we have people in Government on our side — Minister Seán Canney, who kick-started this project, and Minister Kevin “Boxer” Moran, who, as Minister for the OPW, is very familiar with the scheme and has given his commitment to delivery. The OPW and Galway County Council remain firmly committed to delivering a solution but we need them to commit to this timeline with no further delays.
We simply have to keep the forward momentum going and push for the final plan and we can no longer suffer from any delays.
We are delighted to announce that Joe Byrne has joined the South Galway Flood Relief Committee (SGFRC). Joe, who retired as a Galway County Council Councillor last year was a key liaison between the SGFRC and Galway County Council and brought significant technical expertise to the table. He was actively involved in helping the communities of South Galway in winter 2015 flooding and has been a very active supporter of the South Galway/Gort Lowlands flood relief project since its inception in 2017.
In his own words:
“I am delighted to be asked to join SGFRC. Since 2016 as a Councillor until my retirement in June 2024, I was actively involved and no doubt my engineering background was important, as it’s a hugely technical project. I really want to be part now of the Committee to add to their expertise and in doing so ensure my knowledge continues to be of benefit to ensure this project is delivered as a priority and without further delay.”
The project is moving into a critical review phase before final public consultation and we need a final push to ensure it gets over the line.
SGFRC is seeking a meeting with Minister Boxer Moran, the Minister of State for the OPW in the coming weeks to ensure that that the OPW can progress without delay.
Over the past seven years, the South Galway/Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme has faced significant challenges due complex karst landscape across a vast area (470 km²), which includes underground rivers, 37 interconnected floodplains, and over 10 turloughs, many of which are protected as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). Extensive data collection, intricate flood modelling, detailed flood channel design and meticulous environmental assessments bound by stringent regulatory requirements have caused significant delays in the project. Despite these hurdles, progress has been constant, with the scheme aiming to balance effective flood relief solution with environmental and community considerations.
The 470 km² scope of the South Galway/Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme
Though progress has been slow, the scheme has successfully progressed through every milestone and we are now at the tail end of the design process. The design and environmental consultants have navigated and iterated through an inordinate amount of complex design and environmental challenges to produce a scheme that can deliver a lasting flood relief solution.
Last week Galway County Council announced that the proposed scheme, had finally has gone to review with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and are optimistic that the scheme will be submitted to the OPW by the end of February.
There’s still more to do. When the OPW conclude their review the next major milestone is a final Public Consultation that outlines the scheme to the community and other stakeholders. The next stage after that is ministerial confirmation of the scheme.
The flood risk assessment carried out as part of this scheme has highlighted that over 73 homes and 65 non-residential properties will be liable to flooding. In addition, there will be a complete shutdown of transport infrastructure including M18 motorway, Galway road, 49 local roads and rail line. It indicated even worse flooding in Coole Park and also highlighted extensive pollution being brought into Galway Bay.
Though we haven’t had a major flood event in several years South Galway is still highly vulnerable to extensive flooding This scheme simply has to be delivered – as we won’t get another chance at this!
The South Galway Flood Relief Committee (SGFRC) will be organising a meeting with public representatives in the coming weeks to ensure that the project has continued support at local authority and Government level.
A wet October brought early winter storms like Babet which brought significant flooding to Midleton in Cork. This was followed closely by storm Ciarán which brought flooding to Carlingford, Lough and Wexford. At the winter storms roll in, the South Galway landscape is getting extremely wet and waterlogged and the Turlough’s are filling up. And now storm Debi is passing through.
Coole Lake, which is a key flooding decider in South Galway is well up at the moment. According the groundwater monitoring station, it’s currently at 10m (above sea level) which is not uncommon but it’s still rising from the water in the catchment. While this is 7m above its summer level, it’s still 4.7m off its peak flood. However as we are only just starting the winter season, it’s not a good sign that the levels are this high already. In most winters Coole Lake will get above the 10m but its usually after January.
It’s looking rainy over the coming weeks and Met Eireann is predicting “wetter than normal conditions are likely across Ireland during November, December and January. Between 5 and 25mm above average rainfall amounts are possible in November and December, whereas January will possibly receive rainfall amounts nearing the average.”
South Galway Flood Relief Scheme
The key focus of the current project is that the design scheme is being finalised hand Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIAR) and (NIS) are being worked through. There are still investigations on-going.
The cost/benefit analysis is also being updated based on latest data. The draft EIAR is scheduled to be completed before Christmas and will be submitted to the OPW for review. Once finalised and with positive outcomes, the project will be going into Public Exhibition in Q1 2024.
While it is likely that the project costs have increased due to the inflation, the South Galway Flood Relief committee (SGFRC) has requested that the benefits/savings also are adjusted in line with inflation. On Tuesday 20th July, this year, OPW Minister Patrick O’ Donovan met with the South Galway Flood Relief committee (SGFRC), in Gort and reaffirmed his commitment on flooding solutions for South Galway. Please continue to highlight the criticality of this flood-relief solution to our public representatives to ensure there is continued Government support for this solution.
The issue with the M18 culverts is being managed between Galway County council and TII but it is not envisaged that the cost of the M18 culvert works will impact the outcome of the Cost-Benefit Analysis.
Flooding overflowing through the construction of the M18 in South Galway
On Tuesday 20th July, OPW Minister Patrick O’ Donovan met with the South Galway Flood Relief committee (SGFRC), in Gort, to discuss growing concerns over the under capacity of the M18 motorway culverts threatening to the derail the emerging South Galway/Gort Lowlands flood relief scheme. The meeting was organised by Deputy Ciaran Cannon in response to his request to Minister O’ Donovan in a Dail debate on flood risk management in May this year. Deputy Cannon opened the meeting and highlighted that the key people present formed a very collaborative team working toward a solution over the past 6 years.
David Murray, chair of the SGFRC started the discussions with a brief presentation on the history of the decades long flooding crisis that revisits South Galway on a regular basis. He indicated that in 2009 flooding report commissioned by Jennings-O, Donovan cost the taxpayer over 2 million and concluded that at a 48 million cost, the scheme would be infeasible. The current emerging flood relief scheme now has a similar cost associated with it and the people of South Galway don’t want another failed report but a real flood relief scheme. Murray then outlined the history with the M18 and highlighted that despite written concerns from local people, local councillors and a detailed OPW report; the NRA (TII) went ahead with a construction and significant undersizing of the culverts. The solution required to meet the requirements of the emerging flood relief scheme now requires an additional culvert (2.5m x 7m) to be build underneath the motorway at significant cost. The SGFRC did not want this cost to be added to the flood relief scheme as it could potentially deem the project infeasible. Murray also indicated the frustration of delays in resolving this as TII who have had this information for over a year and have been working with public representatives to help resolve this issue.
Minister O’ Donovan indicated that he was well aware of the situation in South Galway. He indicated that flood relief schemes were OPW’s ‘bread and butter’ and their mission is to deliver flood relief schemes across the country. He stated that he absolutely wants a flood relief scheme delivered to South Galway. Regarding the M18, he acknowledged that TII (previously NRA) did not consider his department’s report at the time and indicated that TII And Galway County Council now need to sit down and discuss the way forward. He urged that they be let do this without being under the spotlight and they be given the space to do so.
There were significant frustrations and concerns expressed by the SGFRC and public representatives. Cllr Joe Byrne highlighted the potential ongoing delays that TII could have on this process and that there didn’t seem to be any urgency on them. Cllr P.J Murphy and Gerry Finnerty expressed the frustration of people in the delays to getting a flood relief scheme. Martin McInerney, from Cahermore, who had significant flooding impacts on his farm and home, expressed his frustration on how to get TII to the table here so we can avoid delays in getting a flood relief solution to the region. David Murray reiterated that growing frustration indicating that there was still not date for a supposed meeting between TII and Galway County Council.
Deputy Sean Canney (the then OPW minister who kickstarted the project in 2017), indicated that he was in communication with Liam Conneally, the new executive of Galway County Council to highlight the urgency of a meeting with TII and a resolution of this issue.
Representatives of the OPW indicated that his is a very complex project across a huge area and that here were still environmental challenges to close out. Minister O’ Donovan indicated that there would be no short-cuts on the project and that we have to get it right from an environmental point of view. The minister asked for space for Galway County Council and TII to sit down and work this out and reassured his commitment to the project. “We are with you all the way to end here, we know how much you have been impacted by flooding and we’re going to work with you in delivering a solution. This scheme is a priority for the OPW, we are totally committed to it and we will fund it all the way to completion”, he said.
Murray acknowledged the huge amount of work done to date of the OPW, Galway County Council and our public representatives. He thanked the minister and indicated that the SGFRC would continue to watch the timeline on this very closely. The SGFRC would also like to thank Sullivan’s Hotel in Gort for hosting the meeting.
South Galway Floods 