Minister O’Donovan visits Athlone to view Flood Relief Works

Minister of State for the Office of Public Works, Mr. Patrick O’Donovan TD, today visited Athlone for a series of meetings and to view progress on flood alleviation works at a number of locations.

During his visit, the Minister met with the ‘Save our Shannon’ group and listened to their concerns in relation to flooding issues along the River Shannon. The Minister outlined to the group the progress being made by the Shannon Flood Risk State Agency Co-ordination Working Group in the implementation of its programme of work to assist in alleviating flood risk on the Shannon, following on from his attendance at the Working Group’s meeting earlier this morning.

The Minister visited works at The Strand, The Quay and Deerpark and was updated on progress at these and other locations in Athlone. Speaking afterwards, the Minister said

“I’m delighted to see so much progress has been made on the Athlone Flood Relief Scheme. This has been the result of great cooperation between Westmeath County Council and the OPW which has led to the scheme being implemented in a very timely manner”.

The Minister paid tribute to the great standard of work being carried out by OPW’s Direct Managed Workforce and said

“Already, many homes have been protected from flooding by the works completed to date and I can assure the people of Athlone that I am committed to having the rest of the scheme completed as soon as it possibly can be”.

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