ÁINE RYAN
Atlantic seaboard counties affected by the severe weather will be seeking €65-€70 million to cover the initial cost.
Local authorities stressed that this figure may be even higher as further assessments are carried out on the impact of the storm events and tidal surges on southern and western counties from December 18th to January 6th.
Highest figures produced so far are by counties Clare – which experienced some of the worst impact, at €23.7 million – and Kerry, which is seeking €3.5 million for repairs and another €16 million for coastal protection.
Both Galway city and county will be seeking more than €19 million, with the bulk of this – €18.32 million – sought by the county. Mayo County Council will be seeking €4.5 million, while Donegal has quoted about €1 million and Sligo County Council estimates the cost at €600,000.
Road repair
In an interim report, which was presented to Connemara area councillors yesterday morning, Galway County Council said the cost of road repair at more than 100 locations would be about €2 million, while there was €2.5 million in damage to tourism infrastructure including beaches, walkways and car-parking, and €100,000 worth of damage to six burial grounds.
There was €2 million worth of damage to piers and slipways, while Inishmaan airstrip would require about €250,000 to replace damaged rock armouring. Galway County Council estimates replacement, repair and installation of coastal protection at just under €10 million.
Galway City Council has given an initial figure of €750,000 in damage, with much of that relating to the clean-up and repair at Salthill.
Clean-up works
Mayo County Council has estimated damages at €4.5 million, with €300,000 of that for clean-up works.
Achill Fianna Fáil councillor Micheal McNamara has said that the council’s estimate of repair works due to storm damage along the Co Mayo coastline was “a little on the low side”.
His viewpoint was echoed by many of the county councillors who spoke about the impact of the recent storms at yesterday’s monthly meeting of Mayo County Council.
Mr McNamara proposed that the situation be deemed “an emergency”, saying: “If you stood at Dooagh last Monday morning you would call it an emergency. People have been forced to abandon their own houses,”he said.
A University College Cork expert in coastal management, Jimmy Murphy, has warned that "hard engineering" solutions are costly and ineffective in many areas, and that soft engineering, as in "beach nourishment", is half the cost and is the norm in the US and Europe.
