Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

As we meet this morning, hundreds of families throughout the country are still not able to get back into their homes after the floods. Many are coping with trying to clean up, there are thousands in Cork who still have no water and there are many who are literally watching the level of the water to see how far it is from the front door of their home or business, as the spell of bad weather continues.

I appreciate that this was unprecedented and that it happened very suddenly and, indeed, that the emergency services responded very quickly and appropriately to it. However, we are a week into this spell of bad weather and I want to ask the Taoiseach about the Government's response to it. First, will the Taoiseach accept that the fund of €12 million will not be adequate to deal with the scale of the problem that has arisen with the flooding and the bad weather?

Second, I listened to the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, last night and to a representative of the HSE this morning tell us that applications for that funding to community welfare officers will be means-tested and that people applying should bring with them the appropriate documents they would need for a means test. What instructions have been given to community welfare officers in respect of means testing? Will it be the same type of rigorous means test that is applied when people are applying for emergency payments, where they must bring everything from their bank statements to household bills and so on? Does anybody appreciate that the last thing somebody who has had their home flooded needs is the kind of inquiries that are made during a means test of that kind? Can some arrangement not be made whereby advance payments are made to householders who have been flooded, which might in the course of time be restored from insurance payments or otherwise? At the least, people should not be forced to go through a means test, having gone through the trauma of being flooded.

Third, has the Taoiseach given any instructions to the banks in respect of making short-term credit available to businesses who need to get back into business as quickly as possible after the flood situation and need help with restocking and so on?

Fourth, I wish to ask about the European fund that is available given that the Government said yesterday it was making inquiries about that fund. Has any application been made for assistance from the European Union in respect of the fund for flooding? Has an invitation been issued to the EU Commissioner to visit Ireland to see at first hand the effect of the flooding in different parts of the country?

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