Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The photographs in many of today's papers are very stark. They show entire communities under water and vast swathes of the country are now flooded. Many of us here today come from communities that have been devastated by the recent bad weather, including my own county of Cork. Homes and businesses have been destroyed. People's livelihoods are literally being washed away, and this is not the first time for many citizens. People in these areas cannot get insurance to cover their homes and businesses against this type of damage and this is a major problem. The Taoiseach was asked yesterday by my colleague, Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, if he would introduce a State-funded aid package for houses and businesses in areas of high risk of flooding who cannot get insurance cover through no fault of their own. He would not give that commitment. I ask the Tánaiste to argue for this desperately needed package at Cabinet level. Will she tell her Fine Gael partners in Government that we need this package of funding to help the thousands of families whose homes have been destroyed as a result of bad weather this week? This bad weather is set to continue and even get worse so will the Tánaiste please send a message to the people at high risk of flooding that their Government will be there to support them with practical and monetary assistance?

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