Uncleaned Laois river flooding 'thousands of acres of land'

Thousands of acres are flooding around the Erkina River, a council meeting was told.  

Independent Cllr Ollie Clooney said areas around the river are like a flood plain to the extent that the river itself can no longer be identified. 

He tabled a motion asking “that this Council clean the River Erkina.”

In response to the motion,  Senior Executive Engineer, Edmund Kenny said: “In 2023 Laois County Council engaged ecologists to inspect and identify obstructions to flow in the river channel along the River Erkina. It is proposed that works will be  undertaken in 2024 involving the removal of fallen trees and large debris causing significant obstruction to or deflection of river flows during high-flow events.”  

Cllr Clooney said silt and debris had built up in the river and the area around it is like a flood plain. 

“This river can be seen for miles and miles around. It is like a flood plain. It is flooding thousands of acres of land and you wouldn’t know where the river is,” said Cllr Clooney. 

“They are finding it hard in the summer time, the river has got so shallow with the silt, to come down with a canoe,” he said. 

“The banks are broken down and it is easy for the water to run out and it is like a flood plain,” Cllr  Clooney told the January meeting of Borris-in-Ossory Mountmellick Municipal District. 

Cllr Clooney said he had watched a documentary about Christmas trees being planted along the banks of rivers. 

“They divert the water away from the edge of the bank,” he said. 

Independent Cllr James Kelly agreed and said people were “sick in the face” talking about rivers. 

“This council here are shovel ready to do what they have to do but they are being hamstrung by government departments,” said Cllr Kelly. 

“The government Departments are holding us up, they are not letting us in on the rivers to do what we do,” he said. 

“We are hamstrung here and Cllr Clooney, I fully support you, but you will be talking about this over the next number of years and we still be there looking at the Erkina, unfortunately,” said Cllr Kelly.   

Fine Gael Cllr John King agreed with his colleagues. 

“It is very easy for the guys in the Dail, they are all city people there. I would like some of these Ministers to come down and see the difficulties that people have to envisage on their farms,” he said. 

“Water has to be allowed through, we are sick of all the regulations. There is too many regulations here and too many men at the top that has to be paid huge money,” he said. 

Cllr Clooney thanked his colleagues for their support and said it is an important issue and one that councillors are sure to hear about during the local elections.