Progress on flood-relief scheme

It is expected the people of Ennis will see activity on site in respect of phase two of the Ennis Flood Relief Works by mid to late September “nearly the second anniversary of the flooding in Ennis”, it has been revealed.
A motion was tabled at the Ennis West Electoral Area meeting on Monday by Councillor Tony Mulqueen calling for the proposed start date for phase two of these relief works.
Responding to the motion, Eamon O’Dea, senior executive engineer, explained that works were “expected to begin by September” but this expected start date could “go up or down by a half a month on either side”.
“The OPW will be forwarding the confirmation documents for the River Fergus Lower (Ennis) Certified Drainage Scheme to the Department of Finance before the end of May. It is anticipated that the confirmation documents will be returned to the OPW before the end of June and the required tender procedures will take a further two months and it is expected that work will commence this September,” Mr O’Dea stated in his formal reply.
Councillor Mulqueen added, “Last year, we were told the start date would be November of last year. It’ll nearly go up to the second anniversary of the flooding of Ennis. I’d like to know why it has taken so long.”
Town manager  Mr Ger Dollard explained that the works formed part of an OPW (Office of Public Works) scheme and was not a county council scheme.
“We would have expected that works would have started before now but we can only operate to the time schemes that the OPW give us. What I can say is we will continue to put pressure on them,” he said.
Mr O’Dea highlighted that there were a number of legal requirements that the OPW needed to meet that required them to consult with a lot of other bodies.
“We are as anxious as anyone to ensure it starts as soon as possible,” Mr O’Dea said.
Councillor Mulqueen stressed that the residents in Fergus Park and in Cappahard wanted to know when these works would be starting. He said these residents who were “directly affected by the flooding have not been consulted at all” in the flood relief process and would like to see the plans going forward.