MORE THAN €13m has been spent on the design and consultation of a controversial flood defence project in Cork in the past eight years.

Despite that extraordinary sum, the final design of the Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme (LLRFS) is still not decided and construction will not begin until at least mid-2027.

Construction was originally set to begin in 2020 but the Office of Public Works (OPW) denied any project delay, saying “there has been significant enhancements” since it was first exhibited.

This also only represents around 80% of the total project expenditure to date, meaning the total amount spent is likely to be close to €17m.

The project dates as far back as 2006 when flood defences for Ireland’s second largest and most southerly city were proposed as part of a pilot scheme.

This work later transformed into the LLFRS in 2013 when the main agency behind the project, the OPW, proposed investing €140m in flood protection and a further €20m in repairing the city’s history walls.

However, more than a decade on from that, there is little work to show for it as changes in the law as well as a public campaign that proposed an alternative solution resulted in several redesigns and refinements.

As a result, the city remains susceptible to flooding.

The delays have also contributed to increased costs, with the project now expected to cost “at least” €200m for flood protection work as well as the additional €20m for the city walls, according to the OPW.

Two major floods hit Cork in recent memory, first in 2009 and again in 2014, highlighting the need for improvement in flood defences.

The November 2009 flood was described as one of the city’s worst disasters when the River Lee, which flows through the city, burst its banks.

Independent councillor and former Lord Mayor of Cork, Kieran McCarthy, told The Journal Investigates:

Everyone was in shock when that flood happened.

The culmination of weeks of heavy rainfall, high tides and a decision to release the dam further upstream on safety grounds resulted in a torrent of water flooding the city.

Parts of the city were left under one meter of water and one of the city’s hospitals had to be partially evacuated as a result.

More than 60,000 residents were left without drinking water supplies, and up to €130m of damage was caused by the flood, according to the Cork Business Association.

The River Lee burst its banks again in 2014 as the city was battered by a severe storm and heavy rain.

Several parts of the city were left underwater, and hundreds of businesses were flooded once again causing further damage, with many having already been impacted from flooding five years previously.

Between both floods, a reported €140m of damage was caused in Cork.

But almost 20 years since it was first proposed, a flood defence scheme for the city has yet to be agreed.

The Journal Investigates teamed up with media partners in PULSE and the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet) to investigate how cities, including Cork, have responded to natural disasters.

Data compiled by Spanish outlet El Confidencial shows that the south-west and mid-west of Ireland have experienced the most flood events in the country over the last 150 years.

Investigations like this don’t happen without your support… Impactful investigative reporting is powered by people like you.

A bitter debate over walls

Both major floods reignited the need for flood defences, and the LLFRS project was proposed as a solution to tackle Cork’s multifaceted flooding problem.

However, a bitter debate soon emerged between the OPW and local campaign groups, which centred around the project’s impact on how the city interacted with the river.

Many of the objections to the scheme were due to the various types of barriers and walls proposed. “Impact of proposed walls on heritage and visual” was the top-ranked concern in the scheme’s report following the public exhibition in 2017.

The River Lee flowing through Cork City Niall Sargent / The Journal Investigates Niall Sargent / The Journal Investigates / The Journal Investigates

The OPW argued that the project does not propose building high walls along the river and maintains that the works will not block the river from view.

They said that temporary, mountable walled defences are included in the proposals but that these would only be deployed when the risk of flooding is high.

Save Cork City, a campaign group opposed to the project, have consistently argued that the walls scheme will not work and the views of the river in some places will be obstructed.

Instead, the group proposed a tidal barrier downstream of the city as an alternative solution, saying it was more cost-effective and protected the city’s historical aspects.

Councillor McCarthy told us that Cork’s “massive sense of identity and pride” contributed to the heated debate that took place surrounding the proposals.

He admitted that the initial OPW plans “were quite harsh”, but through refinement and public consultation, they were softened.

There were a number of robust conversations between both sides, McCarthy added.

It wasn’t easy on either side, especially in a city that’s very passionate.

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In 2019, a presentation given by the OPW to Cork City Council said that the tidal barrier proposal was considered by the organisation but that it would not address the cause of the 2009 flood.

It concluded that a tidal barrier is “neither viable or appropriate for Cork”.

Highlighting the bitterness of the public debate over this project, community groups on both sides declined to speak to our team. One told us this was for fear of relitigating the fierce back and forth that sometimes spilled over into the media.

There was a sense of trauma and old wounds among those involved that they feared would reappear if they discussed the project and their opinions on it.

Final design close to completion

Back in 2013 at the outset of the project, construction was expected to begin towards the end of 2020, however, this timeline was pushed back following the opposition raised during the public exhibition.

The same 2019 presentation to Cork City Council listed early 2021 as the earliest date of construction but noted that there were significant risks of delays arising from judicial review challenges to the scheme.

Since then, the OPW have further revised the timeline, pushing the start of construction back to mid-2027.

Should this timeline be met, 18 years will have passed since the 2009 flood.

However, with many hurdles to clear before reaching that point and the threat of being dragged through the courts still lingering, starting construction in just over two years could be considered optimistic.

A spokesperson for the OPW told The Journal Investigates that “the OPW does not have powers to expedite flood relief schemes”. They added: “The delivery of all schemes must meet all of the regulatory and planning requirements.”

The spokesperson also said the project design hadn’t been delayed, adding that since the public exhibition in 2017, “there has been significant enhancements to the Scheme’s design”.

Some of these changes include addressing the concerns raised by the public and ensuring the project meets the longer-term climate of the city as well as its immediate needs.

However, these enhancements and changes to timelines have led to an increase in the costs associated with the project.

In 2020, when our team investigated the flood scheme previously, the OPW told The Journal Investigates that costs would likely rise from the initially quoted €140m due to inflation.

Today, the OPW expects the project to cost “at least” €200m, a 40% rise. This doesn’t include the additional €20m allocated for repairing the city’s historic walls.

These figures may also rise once again, as the final design of the project will inform the costs of the reworked project.

Other projects impacted too

Additional proposals aimed at protecting other parts of the city from flooding have also faced similar delays due to long legal battles.

The Morrison’s Island Public Realm & Flood Defence Scheme was delayed by several years after Save Cork City challenged the planning application all the way to the Supreme Court before being struck down in 2022.

The project, which is separate from the LLFRS, includes a pedestrian riverside walkway and integrated flood defences for approximately 400 city centre properties. One of the city’s many bridges crossing the Lee will also be replaced and upgraded.

Construction on the project began in July 2024, six years after the project was approved by Cork City Council in 2018. It is expected to take 20 months to complete.

Construction underway on the Morrison's Island Public Realm & Flood Defence Scheme in Cork City Conor O'Carroll / The Journal Investigates Conor O'Carroll / The Journal Investigates / The Journal Investigates

Councillor McCarthy said that the court challenges cost the project two years and that progress had been too slow as a result.

“I think it’s judicial reviews and court proceedings that are holding things up,” he said, which pushed public momentum behind the flood defence projects into other things.

“We just need to get on with it a little bit,” he added.

With the OPW close to finalising the enhancements to the LLFRS, the reluctance to engage in the debate is likely to be challenged soon.

The public will once again be given an opportunity to inspect and comment on the latest evolution of the scheme. A public consultation from the Department of Public Expenditure is expected to be held in late 2025.

This may prove to be the catalyst for reawakening the public debate that never truly went away.

Asked whether getting the Morrison’s Island scheme over the line represents a turning point for the city in terms of opposition to the proposed flood defence schemes, McCarthy pauses before firmly saying “no”.

Why? Because he knows how passionate Cork people are when it comes to changes to the city, he says.

He’s just hoping that another flood doesn’t come down the valley before protections for businesses and homes can be put in place.

The Journal Investigates

This article was produced in the framework of the PULSE initiative as part of the ‘Years After the Disaster’ series, a collaborative project that explores how various European cities have recovered from disasters over time.

You can also read the stories from El Confidencial (Spain), Mediapool (Bulgaria) and HotNews (Romania).

Reporter: Conor O’Carroll • Editor: Maria Delaney • Main Image Design: Lorcan O’Reilly • Social Media: Cliodhna Travers