John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, who conveys her apologies to the Deputy for being unable to take the debate herself.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies and the Office of Public Works, OPW, has responsibility for capital flood relief activities. However, the Department of Social Protection has an important role to play in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of emergency events, such as flooding.

When the spending of the various Departments and agencies is added together, there is combined Government spending of more than €21 million arising from the floods of November 2009. The Department of Social Protection will spend in excess of €5 million, with a further €16.4 million spent by the local authorities and more than €500,000 spent by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, departmental officials provided support through the exceptional and urgent needs payment scheme, primarily in respect of needs such as clothing, food, bedding and emergency accommodation. In addition, a humanitarian aid scheme was approved by the Government and an allocation of €10 million was provided. Financial support was provided to more than 1,300 people who suffered damage as a result of the flooding.

In December 2010, the Government also decided to offer support to families that were continuing to experience significant housing problems as a result of the November 2009 flooding and were considering relocating rather than permanently returning to their original homes. An allocation of up to €4 million was provided by the Government to assist up to 20 households towards relocation. The Government's decision provided that relocation offers would be made to householders whose primary residences were deemed by the OPW to be unsustainable and could not be protected from flooding at an economically feasible cost.

To date, the OPW has deemed 19 primary residences, mainly in Galway, as unsustainable and letters inviting householders to formally apply for assistance issued from this Department between November 2011 and May 2012. The Department has since been in contact with the majority of householders providing details of the amounts payable in their particular cases. The Department expects that the legal agreement necessary for the purposes of the scheme will be finalised and issued to householders within the next week or so, which at least is a move in the right direction. The Department of Social Protection can assure the Deputy that there will be no delay in issuing payments once the terms of the legal agreement have been met.

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