When the flood relief plan was drawn up for Fermoy the plan was for the OPW to spend €39.5million just to put boundary walls in place to stop houses and shops from being flooded which was needed, and took many years of work to get the Government to put the money in place.

But according to David Lee of the North Cork Forum, what the people of Fermoy are not aware of is that the serious problem of the storm water was not addressed.

David Lee explains that the area at both sides of the town are very elevated and when we get heavy rain the storm water runs directly to the treatment plant and there is no capacity.

“So what happens – the pumps are turned on and raw sewage is pumped directly to the river to address the problem.”

He points out that there should be a storage or a holding place for the storm water and says there is plenty of land between the town and the treatment plant to accommodate this. 

Full story in this week’s Print & Digital Edition