OPW criticised for alleged inaction on relief plans after Meath town flooded

The Office of Public Works (OPW) has said it will carry out flood relief works immediately for a housing estate which was badly affected by torrential rain last weekend.

The OPW has been criticised by residents of The Village in Bettystown, Co Meath whose homes were badly damaged by flash flooding which occurred on Saturday morning last week.

All but three of the houses in the 26 housing development were inundated with a mixture of flood and sewage water as a result of 44mm of rain that fell on Saturday compounded by high tide and the saturated ground from the wettest July on record.

Most don’t have house insurance because they are on a flood plain. The Village development was built during the Celtic Tiger era.

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Local TD Ged Nash said the OPW has had a flood risk management plan for the area since 2018, but has never implemented it. He criticised what he called “the dire consequences of five years of inaction”.

In response the OPW said senior officials from it and Meath County Council meet last Monday to take “appropriate short term” measures to manage flood risk in the area pending the design of a permanent scheme.

A spokesman said data from last weekend’s flooding is providing the information they need to begin the work.

[ Bettystown residents count cost of weekend deluge: ‘We need the flood wall’ pledged by OPW ]

“Work on this is starting immediately. This includes survey works to better understand the flooding mechanism, impact and extent over the past weekend,” the OPW said.

“It was agreed that a senior level group involving the OPW and Meath County Council will be established to oversee the project delivery process. One of its first tasks, when it meets before the end of this month, is to review the works completed to date by the consultants and to scope out a programme of further works.”

The OPW defended its record in relation to flood relief stating that it has begun 90 separate schemes in the last five years and invested €1.3 billion through the National Development Plan.

Many of the residents remain sceptical about the OPW’s intentions. “We all know that if the OPW had done their job last year, this horrible thing would not have happened,” said Sheila O’Brien.

Another resident Elaine Robinson said they had previously been given two start dates for the building of flood defences and “zero happened”.

She accused the OPW and Meath County Council of passing the buck in relation the flooding to each other.

The OPW had told her that the blocked drains in the area which contributed to the flooding were the responsibility of the council and not them.