{"id":277163,"date":"2026-02-02T17:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/277163\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T17:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:36:08","slug":"interim-flood-defences-to-be-put-in-place-in-enniscorthy-after-river-slaney-burst-its-banks-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/277163\/","title":{"rendered":"Interim flood defences to be put in place in Enniscorthy after river Slaney burst its banks \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interim flood defence works will be put in place in Enniscorthy<\/a> immediately, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> told householders and business owners on a visit to the town on Monday. <\/p>\n

Viewing the damage caused along the town\u2019s quays and at Island Road when the river Slaney burst its banks last Tuesday, Martin said portable \u201caquadams\u201d were already available as an interim protection measure.<\/p>\n

He told householders whose furniture, carpets, wooden floors and kitchen equipment were ruined in last week\u2019s floods that the Government \u201cwill do all we can\u201d to provide immediate aid and install flood defences to prevent flooding in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective is, first of all, to provide humanitarian support to the families and also supports to the businesses that have been impacted,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, the OPW [Office for Public Works<\/a>] will work with the local authority in respect of interim measures to try and protect these houses and this location more generally, and there are interim measures that can be taken to provide that protection and reassurance and we will do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said a further \u201csubstantial, comprehensive scheme\u201d would be submitted for planning permission. <\/p>\n

Enniscorthy and other parts of Leinster and Munster face heightened risk of renewed flooding in the coming week, with yellow warnings back in place from Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n

While in the home of John McNamara (90) at Island Road, Martin was presented by McNamara\u2019s sister Sarah Thompson with a painting entitled Valley of Shadows, depicting a Jesus-like figure in a boat rescuing people from floods.<\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin meets Maryellen McNamara (right) and John McNamara (centre) who’s home was damaged in the recent flooding during a visit to on Island Road in Co Wexford. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Thompson said she wanted Martin to hang the picture, painted by her nephew the artist Emmett Cathcart, in Leinster House. Martin said he would. <\/p>\n

Thompson told the Taoiseach the McNamara family of 14, reared in the Island Road house, had endured repeated flooding since 1965. She said she had heard many commitments that the problem would be fixed but it had not happened.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fresh flood risk for eastern and southern counties as new rain warnings issuedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very angry about the delays here,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Thompson told The Irish Times: \u201cI am not quite reassured. We will wait and see the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I will go up to Leinster House to see that painting hanging there,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Martin was touring towns in the southeast to see at first hand the damage caused by last week\u2019s floods.<\/p>\n

Martin will visit Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow and Wicklow on Tuesday. He was accompanied on Monday by Minister for housing James Browne and Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW Kevin Boxer Moran.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s 50\/50 if we keep going\u2019: Wexford fishmongers hit with second flood in monthsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Moran said he had a lot of experience dealing with floods and the interim and longer-lasting measures that were being put in place had been very effective. He instanced schemes in Portrane and Clontarf in Dublin, as well as others in Kerry, and the midlands. Moran said the interim flood barriers, the aquadams, had been delivered to Enniscorthy by Westmeath County Council. <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said some 56 flood defence schemes had been put in place and there were a further 100 in progression. <\/p>\n

Flood<\/a> risk is again \u201cvery high\u201d across the east and southeast in the coming days, with problems expected to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday, Keith Leonard of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) has said.<\/p>\n

Status yellow rain warnings<\/a> are back in place for five counties \u2013 Carlow, Cork, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford \u2013 on Monday night from 9pm. The warning persists into Tuesday, when additional warnings come into place for Dublin, Louth and Wicklow.<\/p>\n

The heavy rain comes on already saturated ground, with local floods from Rathfarnham<\/a> in Dublin to south Wexford<\/a> and Waterford over the past seven days. Towns in Carlow and Kilkenny continued to deal with damage from rising water over the bank holiday weekend.<\/p>\n

Saturday and in particular Sunday saw some let-up in the persistent heavy rainfall, but that is expected to end on Monday night, Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> has forecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping for some respite over the weekend, there was a small amount of headroom, but I think we\u2019re back into really difficult conditions this week,\u201d the emergency co-ordinator told RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n

He said local authorities had fully deployed their response crews to prepare for any further incidents. \u201cThey\u2019re unblocking culverts and gullies,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re in some places operating pumping operations and putting in temporary flood defences to known areas of flooding and really taking every action they can, including mutual support from local authorities that are less affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be probably the peak levels,\u201d he said, with \u201ca little bit of lag\u201d before rainfall washes through the river catchments.<\/p>\n

ESB on Saturday issued a statement<\/a> highlighting that it may need to release water from the State\u2019s largest artificial reservoir, the Poulaphouca reservoir, due to very high levels.<\/p>\n

The reservoir drains into the river Liffey, which flows through many populous towns before reaching the sea at Dublin. The Clane and Newbridge areas in Co Kildare were highlighted as potentially facing flood risk due to releases.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Blaming Met \u00c9ireann for floods is wrong. Who rezoned the floodplains?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ESB has been letting off water over the weekend and will probably be letting off excesses of water into the coming week,\u201d Leonard said. He said the NECG was co-ordinating with the ESB, which runs the reservoir, and local authorities over controlled releases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that can be managed without any significant flooding to properties, but there will definitely be flooding and overtopping over a lot of land in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Does climate change make small streams and more frequent flooding new risks?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interim flood defence works will be put in place in Enniscorthy immediately, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin told householders and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16665,849,61,60,3770,12969,1191,1843,43,18335,15950,9270,7469],"class_list":{"0":"post-277163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-carlow","9":"tag-floods","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-kildare","13":"tag-kilkenny","14":"tag-met-eireann","15":"tag-micheal-martin","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-weather-events","18":"tag-weather-ireland","19":"tag-wexford","20":"tag-wicklow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}