Multiple Kilkenny flood relief schemes in development but remain years from completion

As communities in Kilkenny continue to recover from the devastating floods brought on by Storm Chandra and recent heavy rain, multiple flood relief schemes are in the process of being developed, but substantial completion of improved defences remains years away.

Relief schemes are in the works for Ballyhale, Piltown, Freshford and Graiguenamagh-Tinnahinch, one of the worst affected areas in the flooding, but it will be at least 2028 before the first one is expected to be delivered.

Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran TD, said early in February that 100 flood relief schemes are underway nationwide and that Kilkenny County Council is leading the delivery of four of these in the initial tranche.

The catastrophic scenes of flooding in Graiguenamangh drew national attention and a visit from the Taoiseach, but construction on the area’s flood relief scheme isn’t programmed to begin until the end of 2027 with completion a further two years away in 2029.

The scheme was commenced in March 2020 and submitted to An Coimisiún Pleanála in December 2025 for planning consent. Plans include raised defences on the River Barrow and River Duiske with an upstream storage area on the latter to prevent flooding. 

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Where possible, new flood defence walls will replace existing ones and these barriers will protect 84 properties from ‘once in a century’ flood events.

The Ballyhale relief scheme is further along in the planning process, commencing in April 2020 with planning permission granted in August 2024. The project will consist of embankments, flood defences and minor works on Main Street Bridge.

The measures will protect 28 properties from 100 year flood events while construction is expected to commence in 2026 and complete in early 2028.

The OPW is trialling a new national delivery model for relief schemes which will be used in Piltown and Freshford. The design of these defences is at an early stage of data collection to inform the appointment of engineering and environmental consultants.

Thomastown also suffered from severe floods in the recent deluges but proposed relief schemes for it and Inistioge have not been included in the roughly 100 schemes being progressed currently.

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Article funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme