Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Colm Burke for raising this matter and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee for facilitating this arrangement.

On behalf of the Government, I express my sympathy to those affected by the flooding in Cork last week. While, thankfully, no lives were lost, the flooding has had a significant impact on homes and businesses in various areas of Cork.

I commend the tremendous work of the council staff, An Garda Síochána, the HSE, Civil Defence, Irish Red Cross and all others who responded so professionally and speedily when their communities were in danger.

As flood waters receded, the immediate priority of the various agencies and bodies working on the response was to achieve a return of critical utilities and road systems to communities as quickly as possible. This required the restoration of electricity supply by the ESB to 11,000 homes, which had been disrupted by water damage to two substations, and the reopening of roads rendered impassable in places, particularly the N25, the N27 and the N71. Cork City Council and Cork County Council immediately activated their clean-up response crews. From early afternoon on 28 June, in the worst affected areas such as Blackpool and Ballyvolane, the councils provided assistance to residents with the clean up of property as waters receded. Civil Defence crews assisted people affected, particularly in the Ballyvolane area of the city.

The Department of Social Protection is actively involved, under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, in assisting those families and individuals affected by the flooding. The scheme in question provides for exceptional needs payments to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure which people could not be expected to meet from their weekly incomes. Furthermore, there is provision for assistance in the form of urgent needs payments. In certain circumstances, these payments can be made to persons who would not normally be entitled to supplementary welfare allowance. The Department also has provisions for humanitarian assistance, designed to provide hardship alleviation assistance, as opposed to compensation, to people affected by an emergency event, such as flooding, and is based on a means test. Humanitarian assistance is not intended to compensate for all losses and does not cover risks that are covered by insurance policies or cover business or commercial losses. The decision to provide humanitarian assistance is a matter for the Government upon submission from the Minister for Social Protection.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has confirmed that he will facilitate any revision by Cork County Council to its restoration improvement programme for 2012 to accommodate rehabilitation works on the roads damaged by the recent floods and the deferral to 2013 of less critical works. The Office of Public works is carrying out a catchment flood risk assessment study of the south-west river basin district area which includes County Cork. This will produce a prioritised list of measures to address areas of significant flood risk and assign responsibility for their implementation. The study will also incorporate the recommendations of a pilot study already completed by the OPW on the River Lee catchment. I understand that the OPW has been in ongoing discussions with the Irish Insurance Federation regarding flooding insurance issues, particularly where insurance cover has not been provided in areas where flood defence or mitigation works have been carried out.

The Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform are considering ways in which we can assist the Red Cross in the provision of humanitarian assistance. They have also asked the financial institutions to help, if at all possible, the small number of businesses which have been affected, particularly those with no insurance. Local authority budgets cannot provide for all of the costs that can arise. The costs incurred by Cork County Council, Cork City Council and Clonakilty Town Council during and following the flooding last week are being assessed at present, and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government will be considering the position in this regard with relevant Government colleagues as quickly as possible. I can also assure the Senator that the ongoing work with local communities in the clean-up and with those individuals and families who have been particularly affected will continue.