Carrowholly storm works will not take place until 2016

Neill O'Neill

THEY were not making light of a serious issue, but there was something ironic in the question asked about the otters in Carrowholly, whose presence was cited earlier this year as being among the reasons for delays to storm prevention works in the area.
Senior Engineer with Mayo County Council, Padraic Walsh, was explaining at yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District that 22 months after Carrowholly, Rosmoney and Rosmindle were devastated by a storm surge and high tide in January 2014, a way around the issues causing delays to works had been identified, but nothing will happen in the area until ‘next year at least’.
“I trust the otter has been taken care of?” inquired Cllr Christy Hyland.
“He must be on the housing list by now,” responded Cllr Michael Holmes, as an air of incredulity swept over the meeting with the sentiments that people in Rosmindle were stranded in their homes by a high tide again last week.  
Meanwhile, ecological concerns and investigations have contributed to delays in commencing work in the area, even preliminary work, as the council are compelled to comply with an EU Habitat Directive when considering work in the Carrowholly area, due to the biodiversity and habitat there. This has caused frustrations both in the locality and amongst councillors.

Otters
Earlier this year, the presence of an otter family in the canal was cited as among the factors that had to be taken into consideration, drawing rebuke from councillors who said that people were less of a priority than animals.
Yesterday, Padraic Walsh confirmed that all planned storm repair and prevention works arising from the storms of January 2014 have been completed in West Mayo, except the Carrowholly works.
“It is ongoing and we see a way of dealing with it all now. We appreciate the concerns of members on the time scale of this but it is significant and will require an application to An Bord PleΡnala. We have a way of dealing with the otters and other ecological issues and the plan will deal with all parts of the Carrowholly area that were affected by the storm event there. We have assessed the ecological impacts and have a lot of constraints in that we have to comply with EU Habitat Directives, and this creates huge challenges in trying to execute a project without having an impact on the habitat or species.”