CONTINUAL flooding of the Limerick to Galway railway line at Ballycar was one of the main issues discussed by Clare cllrs at the June sitting of Clare County Council.
Cllr David Griffin (FF) put forward a motion that “Clare County Council request an update from the Department of Transport on the Ballycar Railway flood alleviation works” at the meeting.
Flooding at the stretch of the rail line in East Clare is a longstanding issue for commuters with continual flooding caused by bad weather as well as a network of disappearing springs and streams caused by the perforation of the limestone landscape. There are fears that the problem could become worse in years to come as according to Clare County Council’s five-year Climate Action Plan published in 2024, flooding is an emerging risk for the region.
A new drainage scheme costing between 16 and 17 million to fix the issue was proposed in 2020 but no work on this has been completed due to conflicts over who should fund the project.
Speaking on the motion, Cllr. Griffin called the problem “One of the most consistent causes of rail disruption in the west of Ireland. In 2024 the issue caused the stoppage of the train from Ennis to Limerick. The railway was 2 metres below water level. We’ve kicked it around in this chamber and it’s been raised in the Dáil as well. I know it’s between Irish rail and the OPW and Clare County Council are an external stakeholder in this”, he added.
Highlighting the proposed cost of a flood relief scheme to solve the issue, the Shannon representative stated, “16 to 17 million is a lot of money to us but not to a national budget”, as he stressed the importance of the issue at a national level.
Killaloe LEA representative cllr Pat Hayes (FF) also spoke of the importance of the issue at both a county and national level, while lamenting the lack of progress on the issue. The East Clare native noted “It’s not a flood on a road. When it’s not happening it’s not an issue there’s 800,000 people a year using this service from Galway to limerick at the minute”.
“It is a critical piece of infrastructure. We have to alleviate it and get it resolved. We have a railway line but we wonder could it be defunct for 2 to 3 months of the year. It’s not a very credible solution in the modern day. It is a critical piece of infrastructure now”, Hayes continued.
Sixmilebridge cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) was quick to thank his own MD for their work on managing flooding at the railway, as well as highlighting the longstanding nature of the issue. “Cllr Pat McMahon brought this up on numerous occasions before he retired. Passengers on the line have grown from 109,000 to 800,000, we could be caught again with egg on our face and the longer its left the worse its getting. The longer you leave it the greater the financial pressure to get to it. I want to thank our own MD, they have a lot of work down in the past taking levels on lakes and rivers. It’s the govt at the end of the day that needs to step up and fund it” said the former Cathaoirleach.
Fellow Shannon LEA representative cllr Michael Begley (IND) also expressed frustration over the problem, noting an incident in the early 2000s where “A local farmer identified to Iarnród Eireann and Clare County Council a solution to the problem at a meeting on site and this was done gratis. It would have cost a fraction of what is being talked about now. I don’t understand why we can’t listen to the simple things and why we have to overcomplicate everything and consequently get delayed with everything”.
In summation, cllr Griffin thanked the elected representatives who spoke and added “I know I’m not the first person to bring it up. It’s a problem for decades before me. The minister did commit to it when he was down, I just are we doing everything on our side that we possibly can?”, he added in relation to the council’s role as an external stakeholder on the county’s railway network.
Senior Executive Officer for Land Activation, Derelict Sites and Property, Carmel Greene, acknowledged the concerns of the above cllrs, explaining that she had “convened the stakeholders from the first day to find the solution. I’m convening a meeting then of all the relevant agencies. What’s required here is a fund by the government to alleviate the issue”, she added.
