Met Éireann has forecast an easing of rainfall from tomorrow which should lead to a drop in water levels in the major lakes in the country.
Continual rain since early November has left thousands of acres underwater in the midlands and caused massive flooding along the river Shannon and its tributaries.
The Mayor of Athlone, Cllr John Butler said the army will be used to help sandbag and protect the town in the event of an emergency and if the river levels continued to rise. The local authorities are monitoring the situation, especially along the Strand and Willow Park areas of the town.
As river levels reached the Strand area of the town, local residents Margaret and Harry Coleman, whose garden was sandbagged by the council to prevent flooding, said they did not expect their house would be touched. "It is very bad but not as bad as seven years ago . . . yet," said Ms Coleman, who said her only criticism was that the council had not built a wall between the houses and the river as it had promised to do some years ago.
Across the Shannon on the Connacht side of the river was being monitored by Waterways Ireland staff who said they were not yet concerned even though the weir at the town was covered with water and the lock overflowing. "It has a bit to go yet before we are in any kind of real trouble. It will depend on how much rain we get in the next few days," said one of the workers.
Local resident Frank Young said while the river levels were high they were not yet at a height where serious flooding was likely to occur unless the rain continued to fall heavily.
Farmers along the river Suck, in Co Roscommon, said they were concerned about the high level of the Shannon, which determines water levels in their area.
Seán Treacy, of Ballinturley, Athleague, whose land is subject to seasonal flooding, reckoned that water flood levels in his area were somewhat higher than average but not as bad as in previous years.
"On the other hand I have seen fields and areas which have not been flooded before now under water and I believe that this is being caused by building and road developments, which means there is less soakage available."
The Connacht vice-president of the Irish Farmers' Association's, Michael Silke, claimed flooding in Co Galway was the worst he had remembered, even more serious than the high floods in 2000. He accused the Government of doing nothing to alleviate the problem.
The IFA, he said, was in negotiation with Tom Parlon, Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the OPW, to see if work could be done to ease the problems.