18/08/08
Green Party Castleknock ward candidate, Roderic O’Gorman has welcomed the commitment from the Department of the Environment to swiftly publish planning guidelines on flood prevention.
“I’m pleased to see that the Department of the Environment has been working on developing new planning guidelines to deal with flood prevention already, and will have these ready for publication in September or October. The reality of climate change is that Ireland is going to suffer from more and more extreme weather events, and this fact needs to be taken into account in development”, stated Roderic O’Gorman.
“The guidelines are being developed in conjunction with the Office of Public Works. They will require local authorities to include flood risk areas in their development plans. This will put local authorities in a better position to deal with emergency situations like we have experienced over the last two weeks”.
O’Gorman also highlighted how overdevelopment could have made a significant contribution to the major flooding in the Dublin area.
“Some of the worst of the flooding in the Dublin area over the last two weeks has occurred in places which have seen major building work over the past years, including along the N3 beside the Blanchardstown Centre and along the Finglas Road towards the Tolka valley. The fact that huge patches of green space have been concreted over and many trees and hedges have been removed means that there is nothing left to soak up rain water, and as such it lodges on roads”, concluded Roderic O’Gorman.
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Further Information
Roderic O’Gorman: 087 417 9777
rodericogorman@gmail.com
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