A plan to build flood defences to protect Ennis has been announced by Minister of State for Finance Tom Parlon. In the past 13 years, severe flooding has hit Ennis four times and the Government has been devising the €26 million scheme since 2001.
At Ennis Town Council offices yesterday, Mr Parlon said almost 900 properties in and around Ennis would benefit from being taken out of the flood-risk area.
Mr Parlon said: "The problem in Ireland may not be as bad as the New Orleans situation, but Ennis has suffered extreme flooding over the years as a result of tidal and fluvial interaction.
"While the Clarecastle barrage, constructed in the 1950s, has successfully prevented flooding in the town from high tides, severe flooding has occurred in 1989, 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2004."
He added: "The proposals on display today are the culmination of studies into the problem since 2001. This scheme will protect properties against a flood with a 1 per cent probability occurring in any one year.
"This is widely recognised by flooding authorities as the appropriate standard of protection for a scheme of this nature."
Mr Parlon said the schemes would alter views to and from the river. "The most important thing to remember is the overriding objective: to prevent or substantially reduce the risk of flooding to those properties so badly affected in recent years," he said.
The works include new walls and embankments in the town centre and some outlying areas.
Construction work is to begin in 2007 and work is expected to take four to five years.
