Conway Walsh says government response to Crossmolina flood relief is unacceptable
Critical need for flood defences to be put in place
The people of Crossmolina have been waiting eight years for flood defences to be put in place and they cannot wait any longer. That was the message delivered by Mayo Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway Walsh this week in the Dáil.
"It is simply unacceptable that residents of Crossmolina have been left waiting for years for the commencement of flood relief work in the town.
"There is too much messing going on here. Crossmolina has waited since 2015 when it was flooded out. The OPW presented the Minister with a plan for the scheme in January 2021 – almost three years ago.
“Since then the Fine Gael Minister for Public Expenditure, Pascal Donohoe, has withheld consent. Reports and reviews have been passed back and forth without any progress. I was assured by a Fine Gael junior Minister in May that construction would commence this year. Yet that commitment seems to have been quietly dropped," she stated.
“Most recently when I sought an update in the Dáil, the response was to attack Sinn Féin rather than provide any information for the people of Crossmolina. As things stand there is no commencement date for the works. It is vital that construction starts as soon as possible as the estimated completion time in four years.
“Everyone knows that the river Deel and the town of Crossmolina have a long history of flooding with four major flooding events in the last 34 years. During the most extreme of the flooding in December 2015, the three main streets of the town were under water and more than 120 properties were flooded.
“Having your home flooded is an awful thing to happen to anyone, and in 2015 families living in the town suffered huge disruption and upset. Businesses faced damage to goods, loss of earnings, insurance issues and more. It is clear to everyone involved that there is a critical need for measures to be employed as soon as possible to alleviate any future flooding within the town.
“People living in Crossmolina have waited eight years already for the Flood Relief Scheme work to be put in place. They cannot wait another four years. This is a community in a very vulnerable situation, and critical measures need to be put in place now, not in four years’ time," she concluded.