The Minister for the OPW doesn't believe moving residents from the area surrounding a flooded lake in south Roscommon is a viable solution.
Patrick O Donovan met local councillors and Oireachtas members to discuss the crisis at lough Funshinagh on Tuesday afternoon, weeks after the local authority agreed to stop all flood relief efforts.
Last month a long ruining legal battle between Roscommon County Council and Friends of the Environment came to a close after a decision was made by the local authority to stop efforts to drain water away from the flooded turlough.
The OPW has spent almost two million euro on laying pipes and remedial works at the Rahara site - with legal costs for the Council in excess of a quarter of a million euro following multiple hearings at the High Court.
It was suggested by Council CE Eugene Cummins that the only solution left for local residents may be to find new homes or to be moved as part of a government scheme.
However, Minister O'Donovan rejects this
''No discussions of that nature have taken place. And to be honest, the priority here should be to try and get water away from people's houses and protect communities. Because the day that you start, you know, relocating properties and dismantling communities is a precedent that it's Lough Funshinagh today I mean, it's going to be somewhere in Dublin tomorrow. It's going to be somewhere in Galway the day after that.''
