"We have been very lucky that we didn't get the same heavy rainfalls experienced in the UK, " said a spokesman for the OPW, the main government department responsible for managing Ireland's flood risk. "And had the same level of rain fallen here, there is no doubt that large areas of the country would have suffered the same flooding as in the UK."

The new minister in charge of the OPW, Noel Ahern, last week told the Sunday Tribune that the OPW had recently been made aware of "up to 400 locations where flood risk exists to some degree.

"The more substantial risk areas have been prioritised for attention and it is anticipated all areas will be examined as quickly as resources allow, " he said.

Heavy investment in flood defences and prevention measures since November 2002 . . . when severe flooding hit Cork, the south east midlands and Dublin, including Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's constituency of Drumcondra . . . has also played its part in avoiding the UK experience.

The OPW will spend 32m this year on capital flood defence projects . . . up 60% on the 20m allocated last year. It will spend a further 18m on ongoing arterial drainage projects designed to reclaim and protect agricultural land from being flooded.

The 2002 floods, which caused millions of euro in damages and put hundreds of people out of their homes, prompted the publication in December 2004 of the National Flood Policy, which mooted a different approach to flood defence.

This report found that climate change meant flooding was increasingly being seen as a natural phenomenon so "we must learn to live with flood events.

"A change of emphasis is required, with a move away from engineering works that defend against floods to management of the flood risk and living with floods, " it said, recommending that 440m be invested in capital works to manage the flood risk over a 10-15 year period.

Noel Ahern, who took over the OPW from Tom Parlon last month, says that flood defence schemes have now been completed along the Tolka in Dublin, the Nore in Kilkenny, and also in Carrick-onSuir.

Contracts will also be in place by the end of the year for the first phase of major schemes in Clonmel, Ennis, Fermoy and Mallow, while the OPW is also working with local authorities in Carlow and Waterford city with a view to commencing schemes later this year or early in 2008.

Work which will be part-funded by the OPW is expected to commence shortly to prevent flooding from the Liffey through the Royal Canal, Ahern added. And a risk assessment and management study is being carried out on the River Lee in Cork, the River Dodder in Dublin and the River Suir in Tipperary and Waterford to identify the flood risk involved, and propose structural and non-structural defences to manage those risks.

Regarding the type of extreme flooding happening in the UK, Ahern said that while authorities here have coped well in the past, "it is nevertheless useful to develop a template that would be appropriate for more extreme flood events, which many predict are more likely to occur in the future as a result of climate change".

The OPW last year launched a second national media campaign focused on flood risk areas, while a new website, www. flooding. ie, includes flood maps showing what areas have been flooded in the past. This is designed to inform house buyers and property developers about the flood history of any house or site they intend to buy.

An OPW spokesman said it intends to develop this site further so that it can predict the likelihood of flooding in a particular area.