County council calls for a new flooding agency

Cork County Council has called for the establishment of a new ‘one-stop-shop’ agency to co-ordinate all aspects of flood management despite concerns regarding the creation of “yet another” national agency.

If created, the new agency would oversee co-ordination between all relevant agencies including the OPW, the Department of Environment, Uisce Éireann, Inland Fisheries Ireland, and Coillte. The idea, brought forward in a motion by Social Democrats Cllr Liam Quaide at Monday’s full meeting of the council, aims to improve overall speed and efficiency with all aspects of flood management.

It would also serve to smoothen any funding or regulatory snags in the delivery of flood relief schemes. “We are dealing with a set of challenges with flood risk in certain parts of the county, and indeed nationally, that is enormous in scale and complexity,” said Cllr Quaide.

Following the devastation caused around the county by Storm Babet on 18 October, Cllr Quaide said many residents feel they have been let down by the council even though it was clear that the council, the HSE, and the emergency services, were “working flat out” to help as many as they could. “The experiences of residents who feel let down are entirely valid,” said Cllr Quaide.

He continued: “These point to a scale of challenges on 18 October that exceeded what the statutory agencies could cope with in response to the floods, and why we need to do things differently as we face more October 18ths, or worse.”

West Cork Fianna Fáil Cllr Joe Carroll supported the motion: “With the amount of agencies that we have to deal with in this country, people are pulling their hair out of their heads. Trying to get all those agencies together to decide on something is a nightmare.”

Although Cllr Quaide’s motion was widely supported in the chamber, some concerns were voiced regarding the reality of establishing a new national agency.

East Cork Fine Gael Cllr Micheal Hegarty said: “Look, Cllr Quaide, I see where you’re coming from but quite honestly, I think in this country we’re overburdened with agencies. I just would urge caution on it.

“We had it already this morning, you’ve TII and they’re involved in submissions of planning applications. I just think it’s become exhaustive,” he added.

Also urging caution was Cork County Council Chief Executive Valerie O’Sullivan: “Just be aware that if you go ahead with this, which you’re quite entitled to do, you’re calling for the establishment of yet another national agency,” said Ms O’Sullivan.

She added: “Whereas actually, if we had local governance, local autonomy, local power to make decisions, things would happen quicker and better and that’s really what’s wrong with the system.”