Skibbereen has a long history of flooding with the most severe events occurring in
1986 and November 2009. Less severe events occurred in 1969, 1974, 1975, 1982,
December 2009, 2012 and 2013. Flooding events also occurred in the 40s and 50s but
little data is available for those events.

Over 200 properties were reported to be flooded by the event which occurred in
November 2009. Flooding occurs from the River Ilen, Showgrounds Stream, Caol
Stream, Assolas Stream, Lurriga Drain and the Glencurragh Stream.

Following the 2009 event, the then Minister of State at OPW, Dr Martin Mansergh
TD, visited the town and indicated that OPW would undertake a Feasibility Study into
the problem. After a procurement process in 2010, RPS were appointed in February
2011 by Cork County Council to undertake the Study with funding from OPW. This
has since been extended to full scheme status and a Steering Group was established
with officials from OPW and Cork County Council and consultants RPS.

The emerging scheme was presented to the public in a Public Information Day held in
January 2012 and has since been refined. The Council initially intended to bring the
Scheme forward under their powers under the planning process but it was later
decided to advance the Scheme under the Arterial Drainage Acts with Cork County
Council acting as Agents for OPW.

A total of sixteen different options were assessed during the course of the Study, all of
which were appraised under a Multi-Criteria Analysis Matrix, the same as is used for
the CFRAM process, and the preferred scheme is the one which scored the highest in
the analysis. The Scheme is mainly a hard defence scheme with some overpumping
and includes the following:

• Construction of new walls
• Construction of earthen embankments
• Replacement of old culverts and construction of new culverts
• Some regrading works at John J Kennedy Bridge
• Construction of Surface Water Pump Stations
• Associated drainage works

The Scheme, launched by Minister of State, Brian Hayes, T.D., was formally placed on Public Exhibition from 11th April 2013 until 10th May 2013 with observations accepted by the OPW until 31st May 2013. All observations received will be considered before any decision is made on how best to progress the scheme. If the Scheme is generally accepted by the elected members of Cork County Council and the general public in Skibbereen it is hoped to undertake the detailed design in the second half of 2013 with procurement of a civil works contractor to follow. It may then be possible to commence construction works in mid-2014.