Flood victims face means test for aid
Government's €10m fund not open to businesses
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Wednesday November 25 2009
PEOPLE who have been forced to evacuate their homes in the floods are facing a means test to qualify for the Government's €10m humanitarian assistance fund.
The fund is designed to assist people whose damaged homes and possessions are not covered by insurance.
Flood victims are expected to be given funds to replace carpets, beds, flooring and appliances such as washing machines and cookers.
The scheme will be administered by community welfare officers, who will be instructed by the Department of Social and Family Affairs to administer a means test and to give priority to the most urgent cases.
The Irish Independent understand that the criteria for the means test have not yet been decided and there will be no upper limit for the amount of assistance provided to the most severely affected households.
Businesses destroyed or damaged by the flooding will not be able to receive funding from the scheme.
But farmers are set to benefit from a €2m "fodder aid scheme" which will help to meet the cost of replacing silage, hay and other animal feeds destroyed by the floods.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen emphasised that the humanitarian relief fund was not intended to replace the forthcoming insurance payouts that householders were due to receive.
"Obviously the insurance policies people have, they will come into effect. That is why people take out insurance cover," he said.
It came as county councils in Galway, Roscommon and Leitrim advised motorists to avoid non-essential travel, with hundreds of roads closed in their areas as well as in parts of the Midlands and South.
In the Dail, Mr Cowen said the official response to the flooding crisis had "worked well" and praised the public service emergency workers for their prompt response.
"Everybody who had a responsibility to discharge, discharged it excellently," he said.
The announcement of the humanitarian assistance scheme prompted a mixed response from the Opposition, who urged the Government to do more.
Livelihoods
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the nationwide floods had led to thousands of people watching their livelihoods being "washed away before their eyes".
"We do need, now more than ever, to offer these people some sense that Government do understand what they are facing into in the last few weeks of this year," he said.
The Government is also investigating the possibility of tapping into the EU's €1bn European Solidarity Fund, which gave almost €90m to Greece in the wake of its devastating forest fires in 2007.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the Government needed to take charge of the situation and help those worst affected -- such as the 18,000 households in Cork left without drinking water. He also said that even people with insurance cover would need financial assistance while their insurance claim was coming through.
"In the present economic circumstances, many households and businesses may not have access to alternative sources of funding," he said.
Community welfare officers have already given money to people in urgent need of food, clothes and accommodation in the aftermath of the floods.
The Government was also planning to hire consultants to look into an early warning system for nationwide floods, it emerged last night.
The announcement was made by Junior Minister Martin Mansergh, after strong opposition criticism of the lack of such a system here.
- Michael Brennan, Ralph Riegel and Conor Kane
Irish Independent
