€50 million flood protection measure is a vital investment in Cork city – Murphy

Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central, Dara Murphy, has welcomed the announcement by Minister of State for the OPW, Brian Hayes TD, that €50 million is to be invested in flood prevention measures for Cork city. 

“Everyone in Cork will welcome the announcement by Minister Hayes this morning about a flood prevention scheme for the city. This flood relief scheme for Cork city is an absolute priority for the Government. 

“The flood prevention project for Cork, which is due to begin construction at the end of 2015, is set to be the largest such project undertaken in the history of the State. The three year project is expected to cost in excess in €50 million. 

“It is important that the project is properly designed to meet Cork’s specific needs and that there is strong local buy-in from residents and businesses for the project. As Minister Hayes has said, that failure to do that could lead to further delays which would push the completion date out past 2018.

“It is a desperate shame that Fianna Fáil didn’t have the wherewithal to provide this vital investment to the city during the good times. It could have helped prevent a huge amount of hardship for the residents and businesspeople of the city. It is also regrettable that of the 14 politicians that met Minister Hayes in Cork to outline the scale of the flooding problem and impress upon him the need for Government support, not a single member of Fianna Fáil was present.

“Despite the constraints on the economy, Fine Gael is investing in Cork at the start of our economic recovery. This Government has also safeguarded funding for a Convention Centre and a new prison after almost 2 decades of Fianna Fail neglect of the city. The Government is also helping to attract a significant amount of jobs to the city as has been was evidenced by the announcement of over 700 jobs in the city in the last fortnight by Tyco, HedgeServ and Westbourne IT Global Services.”