Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps Deputy Adams misunderstands what I was saying. The initial response of the Government was to consider the matter in respect of the humanitarian issues that arise now. The Government has put in place a fund of €15 million, pending assessment, to deal with the humanitarian issues immediately. That is why the emergency response unit at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, together with local authorities and their committees working with agencies, community organisations, residents associations and the St. Vincent de Paul, are collating information about structural damage and the human circumstances that apply in cases of flooding. We know where they are and I have outlined some of them here. That is a €15 million fund for humanitarian only issues, pending assessment.

On the issue of structural damage and the capital resources needed, some €250 million has been spent on capital works. I remember Clonmel, which Deputy Healy is aware of, Fermoy and Kilkenny where it has taken a long time to put defences in place. I walked Bertra Beach a number of weeks ago and what took 10,000 years to put in place was gone in 12 hours because of the open Atlantic Ocean. The same applies to Glenbeigh in County Kerry or other places where damage has been inflicted through the movement of cliffs and cliff faces. It is a more long-term operation. How do we provide the longer-term defences in Clontarf, Limerick, Galway or Cork, which has been flooded on a number of occasions?

Yesterday, I met people whose businesses had been flooded three times in three years. There is no insurance after the first claim is made, which is an issue of great concern to people in business. One woman said to me she would be closed until the end of April to repair the flood of yesterday morning, which will cost €250,000 to repair the damage in a medieval building that soaks up water like a sponge. The Government is very serious about this. The €15 million is for humanitarian issues now and structures exist to deal with that. We will have an update on Thursday and a full report on details, scale, and impact across the country from the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, next Tuesday. The Government will respond in the best way it can.

We will make an application, if appropriate, to Europe. This morning I heard a spokeswoman saying we could collate damages across the country into a single application. We will consider that based on the extent of what is needed.

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