LAST UPDATE | 5 hrs ago

AFTER YEARS OF being left in limbo, residents in North County Dublin who have watched their properties be slowly eaten by the sea have today received the welcome news that works will begin this week to save their homes. 

This afternoon, Junior Minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, visited The Burrow in Portrane to announce funding for emergency works to protect eight residential properties that are deemed at risk of imminent collapse. 

€622,000 has been announced to construct an emergency rock armour along 270m of the coastline at Brook Beach in Portrane. 

As previously reported by The Journal, residents of The Burrow in Portrane have watched helplessly for years as their homes have edged closer and closer to the sea.

Entire gardens have been lost, and at least one homeowner has been forced to abandon their property.

Large concrete blocks, known as ‘Sea Bees’, have been placed along the beach by Fingal County Council to slow down erosion while it awaited planning permission for the longer-term measures announced today.

Speaking to The Journal, one homeowner, Sharon Shevlin, described today as “a good day”. 

Erosion of her land began in 2016, with Sharon’s husband, David, filling over 10,000 sandbags since then to protect the family home. 

“We were told we were going to lose our house and all of our land,” Sharon said. 

She explained that in January of this year, the council moved the ‘Sea bees’ on the beach to better protect her home and others. 

“If they hadn’t have done that, the last storm events during January, my husband wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the sandbagging. It’s just such time-consuming [work]. He’s so stressed over it.

“And even the girls, their whole childhood has been consumed by coastal erosion,” Sharon said, referring to her two daughters. 

“Their college work, their thesis is on coastal erosion…It’s because that’s what they live every day…Every tide, every storm event, impacts your whole life.”

While Shevlin said today is a positive one, the works that have been announced were needed “ten years ago”. 

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Minister for Climate Darragh O'Brien and Minister of State for the OPW Kevin 'Boxer' Moran meeting with local politicians and residents in Portrane this afternoon. The Journal The Journal

“Before any property was lost, we needed them. And not only that, it’s not just our properties, it’s the whole of the beach that needs to be protected,” she said.

Local TD and Minister for Climate Darragh O’Brien, who was in Portrane today alongside ‘Boxer’ Moran, told The Journal that the proposed works will start this week and will be completed in “a matter of weeks”.

Following this, O’Brien said a planning application for a permanent coastal erosion scheme will be submitted next week. 

Junior Minister ‘Boxer’ Moran said: “Coastal pressure is now becoming every bit as significant as river flooding and something we have to very much get down and stuck into.”