Clean up works after storms cost council over €153,000

Clean up works after winter storms in 2025 are set to cost the council over €153,000.

South Dublin County Council’s SWAT – Severe Weather Assessment Team – were activated for “four severe weather events over the winter 2025 period from January to December 2025”.

A total of 369 incidents were reported to SDCC during Storm Eowyn, Storm Amy, Storm Bram and an Orange Status rainfall event associated with Storm Claudia.

That’s according to a report from the council’s Housing, Climate Action and Planning and Transport directors in response to a question from Cllr Justin Sinnott (SD) at the full council meeting for January, asking for an outline of “additional cost and work” required by council staff after the “significant” number of storms last year.

“The additional costs incurred in 2025 are in the region of €153,212, not including the costs expected due to ongoing housing repairs,” the report said.

Overall, Storm Eowyn, a Status Red wind and rain event on January 24, 2025, was the costliest of the four extreme weather events for the council last year.

Up to 220 incidents were reported to the council during Storm Eowyn, compared to 116 during the Orange Status rainfall and 33 during Storm Bram.

The council’s public realm department incurred additional costs of €59,500 while responding to incidents of “damage to trees resulting from high winds and localised flooding in SDCC Parks” during the first storm of the year.

Their housing department spent €47,794 on additional repairs and remedial works after Storm Eowyn, while costs for roads maintenance and public lighting works in the wake of the January storm came to a total of €16,013.

Costs incurred by public realm during Storm Amy on October 4, the Status Orange rain event on November 14 and Storm Bram on December 9 totalled approximately €10,100 for all three storms.

Roads maintenance costs incurred were €7,225, €5,370 and €3,470 respectively, while the council’s Natural Water Team incurred staff overtime costs in the region of €3,740 for stormwater network screen cleaning and surface water removal during the Orange Status rainfall.

“Work in advance of these events was incorporated into normal working hours,” the report added.

“These included holding Severe Weather Assessment Team meetings, assessing the readiness of the Council to respond to any incidents that might arise, and mitigation works to reduce the impacts of expected rainfall, including the cleaning of screens on the stormwater network, street sweeping to remove build-up of leaves and targeted gully cleaning, etc.”

It said the additional work required to address all incidents arising is managed as part of the daily workload and resources “where possible” and therefore resources like staff and fleet “are not assigned a financial cost”.

“These additional works impacted on resources for the ongoing council workload,” the report noted.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme