Plea to clean the River Finnihy as ‘sally bush’ blamed for flood

LOCAL businesses and politicians in Kenmare have pleaded with Kerry County Council to clean along the River Finnihy in Kenmare to prevent further flooding. Although a major flood defence plan is underway for the town of Kenmare in the coming years, urgent work is now needed to prevent further floods, Kenmare Municipal Meeting heard on Friday.

This is the third time that the town has been flooded, although the damage caused in 2008 was more pronounced. However, last week’s flood has angered affected local businesses and representatives who say that clearing the river of branches and vegetation would go some way towards curbing the threat of flood damage.

“There is no reason in the world that the square should be flooded. There is a small body of work that should be done to prevent this,” Cllr Johnny Healy-Rae said.

“Cutting trees was resisted in Foiladown for years and €150,000 was spent last year cleaning the river, cutting trees and cleaning the eyes of the bridge and it didn’t flood yesterday.”

His calls were echoed by Cllr Dan McCarthy who said trees blocking the river was partially to blame for the flood.

“I believe trees fell across the pipe. A sally bush that came down in the flood and blocked the river ... We need to cut the bushes around the river. Please urgently push on with this. Trees are 50 to 60 per cent at fault,” he said.

However, council management, said that cutting trees along the River Embankment is not their responsibility.

“Landowners are responsible for the trees ... The council are not legally responsible [for cutting trees] outside of a specifically allocated office of public works (OPW) scheme,” said Senior Engineer Padraic Teahan. He said the solution to Kenmare flooding is the Kenmare Flood Relief Scheme (FRS) following the CFRAM study of flooding nationwide. This €5m project includes the removal of the existing sewer pipe under the Finnihy Bridge and the construction of flood defence walls and embankments. Cllr Dan Mcarthy said a “CFRAM study was no good to flooded businesses”

Mayor of Kerry, Cllr Patrick Connor Scarteen, asked if funding was ‘untouched’ for these works. Mr Teahan said there was no such thing as ‘ring-fenced’ money and it would depend on what funding was available when it comes to construction. However, he said there is a strong commitment to the project.