A group of Cork business representatives have come together to call for the withdrawal of legal challenges to the Morrison’s Island flood defence scheme.
Cork Chamber, Cork Business Association, Construction Industry Federation, the Cork branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland and Retail Excellence Ireland, have issued an appeal ahead of a High Court hearing of an application from the Save Cork City group for a judicial review of the scheme.
The Save Cork City campaign group is advocating for a tidal barrier in place of the current flood relief scheme which it says will not solve the problem of flooding in the city long term.
It follows devastating flooding in the city last month which left many businesses in the vicinity of Morrison's Island under water just two days before Level5 restrictions came into force.
Speaking to RedFM News Conor Healy of Cork Chamber says there's a real chance to get the scheme up and running now if everyone gets on board.
"Cork is under constant threat in terms of flooding, it's a major challenge it's not going to go away without alleviation measures being taken.
"Those alleviation measures had been well identified, there's been comprehensive studies, reports undertaken by the OPW and Cork City Council.
"The reality of it is the Morrison's Island scheme would prevent 90% of all the flooding that takes place in Cork city.
"If it had gone ahead in the earlier phases it would be at least half complete at this point in time - if it were to start now it would take bout 18 months or so to complete. So there is an opportunity here to move forward with the project."
However, speaking to RedFM News John Hegarty of Save Cork City says support for their campaign has grown since last month's flooding and he says the people of Cork deserve the best flood defences and not what's on offer.
"We've been getting more and more support, people are extremely angry on the ground and they support us.
"People who say that's waning are acting in their own interests.
"I mean, there's a PR campaign going on at the moment so that the OPW can win an argument, and the people of Cork will be left behind without a resolution to a very serious problem."
