*The River Graney.
€204k “is pittance” for drainage works across East Clare, a county councillor has claimed.
An allocation of €204,300 was given to the Killaloe Municipal District in 2022 out of an overall countywide budget of €879,864, a funding grant which has “remain unchanged for several years,” as pointed out by senior engineer Derek Troy.
He explained, “the primary focus of this funding is to deal with remediation and improvement of defective drainage systems, to help increase the longevity of road surface integrity. This funding can also be used to deal with off-road drainage issues such as catchments that are not functioning as efficiently as they should”.
Killaloe MD’s allocation was divided between Cloonolia (€28,000), the River Graney (€25,000), O’Callaghans Mills (€24,000), Ballyvannon (€15,300), Ayle in Feakle (€15,000), Coolycasey (€12,000), Maghera (€11,000), Dromindoora (€10,000), Ballyvorgal (€10,000), Carrownakilly (€8,000), Cragroe Cross (€7,000), Upper Clonfadda (€6,000), Cloonamirren (€5,000), Powerscourt in Tulla (€4,000), Derra (€4,000), Springmount in Kilmore (€4,000) and Doon Lake (€4,000).
“Complexities of the process” scuppered plans to undertake an appropriate assessment (AA) survey and clearing of vegetation along a section of the River Graney, Troy outlined. It is hoped this can be conducted in 2013 “subject to funding”.
Implementation of “a full arterial drainage programme” for the Killaloe MD was requested by Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) “with particular emphasis on the Graney catchment areas and its tributaries”. He was adamant the “long term resolution” to flooding across East Clare was drainage and clearing obstacles on rivers.
Although he praised the 2022 allocation, Cllr Hayes believed “the works are all reactive to where we are”. He added, “We’ve got away luckily the last couple of years, we’ve raised roads but the idea that you can raise a road by two or three foot doesn’t mean it is dealt with”.
Hayes issued a note of warning, “Unless we put a plan in place and we’ve committed to it, we’ll have a major crisis someday, it’s all trying to take it off but it’s like putting it in a field and closing the gate, the gate won’t deal with the bigger issues. We’re lucky we haven’t had floods like this for the last number of years”.
Pinch points have to be alleviated to let the water off, the Maghera native said. “We need to be far more proactive here in terms of having an actual programme in place. I hope we have a nice dry winter and we don’t have any issue with floods”.
Up to €28,000 was spent in the vicinity of Mountshannon alone, Cllr Pat Burke (FG) observed, “it killed a couple of birds with the one stone with drainage and the widening of the road”. He commented, “€204,000 overall is pittance when you consider what’s needed. Back in the day plenty of outdoor workers were letting water off local and minor roads. It doesn’t happen anymore because of health and safety and a lot of nonsense, they can’t go off and work on their own”.
Burke pointed out the amount of money available under climate adaptation. He flagged that bog roads were at risk of collapsing. “We will be discussing it next winter again no doubt which is not good enough”.
Councillors were assured by the senior engineer that they intend to undertake the assessment as early as possible in 2023. “The major issue is the amount of funding allocated. The more funding we can draw down the better”.
