High Court order halts Lough Funshinagh flood relief work

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A High Court order halted flood relief work at Lough Funshinagh after Friends of the Irish Environment challenged Roscommon County Council over the scheme. The proceedings were reported on 30 March 2022.

The report said the council had stopped work the previous week on a pipeline intended to drain the lake into the nearby River Shannon. Friends of the Irish Environment had taken the council to the High Court on the grounds that no environmental impact assessment had been carried out, breaching EU rules.

The lake in County Roscommon had not drained since 2016, and the resulting flooding threatened homes and livelihoods. Residents described damage to the local habitat and concern about further flooding.

The council said it had sought a way to deliver urgent emergency relief so families could stay in their homes. Eoin Brady, a lawyer for Friends of the Irish Environment, said the council had twice sought to approve a project to remove a significant volume of water from a protected habitat without the environmental assessments required by law.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.