Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The money we are approving today was approved under the 2020 scheme and has been paid out this year. Parts of this €403,000 have been paid and there is some more still to be paid. It is a knock-on effect of not being able to complete the work to pay this money in 2020 that it has come into 2021. These schemes are not ideal in that they are ad hoc. To me, however, and having sat around that emergency co-ordination table during those events, I found it very useful to know that the Red Cross was available and at quick notice could set up a scheme and initially roll out money quite quickly. With larger claims there is a bit more work involved by the Red Cross to do with site inspection and so on. That is why there would be a time delay. Generally, however, these funds are paid out quite quickly. We like that because, generally, these businesses are under immense pressure there and then and most cases relate to flooding. The Red Cross tries to respond quickly.

Discussions are ongoing between ourselves and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on whether it would be better to set up a permanent, statutory scheme as opposed to an ad hocone. We are investigating that at the moment and will report back to the committee on it in due course. This scheme would originally have been housed in the Department of Defence but as money is mainly paid out to businesses and community enterprises, it is probably best that it is located in our Department now.