CORK CITY Council has defended its role in last November’s flooding in Cork city which forced hundreds of people from their homes and caused some €100 million in damage to homes and businesses.
City manager Joe Gavin strongly rejected criticism of the role of local authorities in their response to the flooding made by a Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment in its report on the November floods and big freeze in December and January.
In the report, the committee under Fianna Fáil TD Seán Fleming noted it had received presentations from local authorities including Cork City Council, and State agencies and semi-State bodies such as the OPW and the ESB.
In particular, the committee pointed out that the various State agencies tended to focus on narrow definitions of their role rather than accept any broader definition of what they could have contributed.
“Throughout our deliberations, we repeatedly encountered a tendency on the part of the various relevant State bodies to define their responsibilities more in terms of what they do not include rather than what they do,” said the committee.
But Mr Gavin strongly rejected this when it was put to him by The Irish Timesregarding Cork City Council's response to the flooding when the river Lee burst its banks and flooded a large section of the low-lying western side of the city.
“I don’t accept that. When we had problems to deal with in the city, as we had on the night of November 19th/20th, everybody in Cork City Council chipped in – there was no standing on ceremony – all our staff turned out and it was the same with every agency we approached.
“The Garda, the Civil Defence, the Navy, the HSE – everyone we approached for assistance chipped in 100 per cent . . . Everyone came out willingly and were unsparing in their efforts to deal with the situation.”
Meanwhile, Cork county manager Martin Riordan said he believed the joint Oireachtas committee wasn’t necessarily directing its comments towards local authorities and pointed out it had paid tribute to councils for their response to the flooding.
“The committee say that local authorities’ response was ‘swift and predetermined’, which means that an emergency plan was ready at local level and that we were proactive. It acknowledged that we faced an enormous challenge and that we met it well.”
Mr Riordan pointed out the council, in addition to having to deal with flooding in the Lee, faced flooding in the Bandon and Blackwater valleys as well as from other smaller rivers. “We had flooding at multiple locations, flooding that was high-impact over a short duration and my sense is that ourselves, the HSE and the gardaí worked well with no loss of life and no injury. And we were into recovery mode very quickly and overall we responded well.”