Overview of the flooded Douglas Village. Picture: Eddie O’Hare

A report by consulting engineers expected to reveal the cause of devastating floods in Douglas in June will not be released to the public, Cork’s county manager has confirmed.
Martin Riordan said the report by RPS Consulting Engineers would not be made public because a number of businesses in Douglas have blamed the county council for the flooding and are threatening legal action.
The engineers examined why a culvert, installed last year and designed to protect Douglas from a one-in-1,000-year flood, failed to cope with flooding from the Ballybrack Stream in the early hours of June 28. It is widely believed that a trash screen at the culvert entrance became blocked and the water spilled on to the streets rather than passing through the culvert.
RPS Consulting Engineers were engaged by the county council to examine what went wrong and what measures needed to be introduced to prevent future flooding.
Mr Riordan has now written to councillors, saying: “The council has been put on notice of intended claims. In accordance with the council’s Public Liability cover, our insurers have instructed the council that all reports in relation to the incident are to be provided solely to them as insurers.”
Mr Riordan said all decisions would now be made by their insurers and so the report would not be available for publication.
Fine Gael councillor Tim Lombard said the failure to make the report public could have devastating consequences for businesses.
He said: “This goes against the entire principle of what we were trying to do by engaging the consultants. The reason for the report was to help businesses show their insurers what happened and what measures will be taken to address future risk.
“Businesses need to convince their insurers that any problems that occurred during the floods are being addressed. The biggest single issue for businesses now is trying to get flood cover in the future. If they can’t get insurance, they could close up altogether,” he added.
Douglas-based councillor Deirdre Forde said it was unacceptable that elected members of the county council would not see the report.
She said: “I’ll be very angry if that’s the case. If the council is being sued, we are the council, so we should know the facts. I find this an extraordinary turn of events that could have serious consequences for businesses.”
Cllr Forde said she would be asking the county manager to call an emergency meeting this month to discuss the issue.
“We can’t wait until the council meets again in mid-September,” she said.