Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which is of enormous importance to people in counties Cork and Waterford and the other parts of the country affected by flooding, not just in the past few weeks but also in recent years. I had the chance to visit Midleton last week, which is a town I know well. I have seen a lot of flood damage in my time, but this at a different scale. The floodwaters were up to my arm. It was not just water. There was dirt, mud and sewage. A huge amount of damage was done. I have seen other floods where people in houses or shops could save their belongings or stock by bringing it upstairs or putting it up high. That was just not possible for a large number of people because of the scale and speed of the flood, which in some cases broke the glass windows of shopfronts. That is something I had not seen before. That is why the Government responded with its decision on Tuesday to put in place a business scheme under which people will get €5,000 upfront to help with the immediate costs of clean up and repair. There is then a scheme of as much as €20,000, up to €100,000 in some cases, where people have lost their stock. This is of course for businesses that tried to get flood insurance, but despite their best efforts could not because of where their premises are located. Homeowners will get the help they need. This also applies to rental properties, which is a change we made on Tuesday. It is means tested, but the means test has been relaxed. It is important to bear in mind that if you are over the means test amount - roughly €50,000 for a single person and €90,000 for a couple - it will not be the case that you get nothing. You get 100% if you are under that amount. If you are above the means test amount, you have to make a contribution. Even people on very good incomes will get some help with repairs to their properties and the replacement of white goods and so on. We will make it as simple as possible. Staff from the Department of Social Protection and community welfare officers have already gone door to door. They have already paid the first additional grants to a lot of residents. The Irish Red Cross will be doing the same. That will all be up and running this week. On the social protection side, it was up and running right away. We will try to make it as simple as possible, but there have to be checks and balances. This is ultimately taxpayers' money. As we sadly learned even during the pandemic, there were irregularities with the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the pandemic unemployment payment. We have to bear in mind that this is taxpayers' money and make sure there are some checks and balances. However, we will try to minimise that as much as possible.

The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, had a good meeting yesterday with Cork County Council on flood relief scheme. I am due to receive the report on that today. It is still intended to get the flood relief scheme into planning next year, but these are complex schemes that take a lot of time and are often challenged and opposed at An Bord Pleanála and in court. We have 50 done and they have worked. There are 90 in the pipeline. We are getting these done.

I agree with the Deputy that we need a land use plan for Ireland. We are working on that at the moment. It is being led by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Hackett. Other Departments are also involved in that.

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