Last night (8th Jan, 2010), RTE Prime Time screened a program on the floods in Sallins, amongst other places.

I spoke to the program makers, on camera, for about thirty minutes, however I did not feature in the eventual program. I did show them around the local landscape and bring them to the site of the culvert etc where they interviewed both myself and Brendan McCauley (who did make the program for about 5 seconds!).

The technical information was not bad however the program gave the impression of a state of inertia. I feel that whilst there were many faults preceding the situation (principally lack of any maintenance on the culverts) there has been progress since which was not reflected. In the immediate aftermath, a number of meetings were held and a dedicated committee was setup to progress the engineering issues with the council. That committee had a meeting with the council before Christmas and I understand all sides viewed it as positive. Since then the council have begun a drainage survey of the surrounding lands and I believe the target is to have an upgraded culvert in place by month end.

So things do appear to be happening, albeit at a slow pace. I do not imagine there will be further public meetings however I expect the committee that was formed arising from the initial meetings will be getting together and furthering their work with the council. As I have further updates, I will post on here.

One remark that was most unhelpful was that from the Minister, John Gormely TD.  He remarked, almost flippantly at the end, that the estate was “built on a flood plain” and what would the residents expect? A casual remark, in my view and an uninformed one at that. I have stated in the past exactly why I believe the Waterways flooded and a flood plain does not come into it. I have raised this with Deputy Fitzpatrick and he is seeking a clarification with the Minister so the correct facts can be put on record from the department.