The cost of Galway City’s planned new flood defences has swelled to €50m – over five times the original price tag – after it was agreed to revise the scope of the scheme to include a larger area and more properties.

In March, the Tribune revealed that lodgement of the planning application for the Coirib go Cósta flood relief scheme had been delayed by at least three years.

And now it has emerged that the works will cost €50m – not €9.5m as per the original plan.

Galway West TD Catherine Connolly (Ind) said delays to the project have left the city vulnerable to potentially destructive flooding events.

Coirib go Cósta was billed as a project to protect Galway against one-in-200-year coastal floods and one-in-100-year river floods.

The original timeframe was that a planning application would be lodged this year, with construction to start in 2026 if planning hurdles were jumped.

But Galway City Council and Office of Public Works (OPW) confirmed in March that it would be 2027 at the earliest before consultants Arup would be ready to lodge an application.

Through Dáil questions this week, Deputy Connolly has discovered that the estimated price tag of the overall project has swelled to €50m.

Caption: Deputy Catherine Connolly.

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