Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited traders on the Main Street in Midleton, Co Cork today who were worst impacted by the flooding in the town and said that he understood the “upset” and “anger” they felt at the damage caused to their properties.
Business owners approached the Taoiseach and thanked him for visiting, while pleading with him to make funding available with as little bureaucracy as possible.
Mr Varadkar pledged to do everything in his power to assist impacted businesses, householders, clubs and voluntary organisations. He admitted that the damage caused by the storm was substantial.
“It is very hard to know what to say. I have visited a few places affected by floods in the past but this is particularly bad. Water levels rose very high. The water came very quickly and of course a lot of the water is dirty so a lot of damage done to businesses here. To homes as well. And understandably a lot of people are very upset. Very angry.
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“We are not just here as a Government to express solidarity. We are here to help. We are putting in place a financial package to help homes and businesses that are not insured. Clearly a lot of damage to roads and bridges as well. We are going to ensure that they are repaired. We are going to ensure that help is on the way.”
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The Taoiseach visited the fire station in Midleton to thank the emergency services for their heroic actions yesterday which included evacuating people from their homes and helping children on their return journey from school.
“I want to express my thanks to all the people who work in the emergency services, the public services. All the volunteers. I met them earlier on in the Fire Station. A really good example of people and a community pulling together. But the clean-up here is going to take quite some time and it is going to cost. But we will be here to help.”
Mr Varadkar insisted that a cap wouldn’t be put on the funding allocated in the aftermath of the storm.
“I can’t say at this stage (how much the financial package will cost). There is an initial allocation of €10 million to help families and businesses and clubs and voluntary organisations too. But it is not capped at €10 million. That is just the initial allocation that has been made.
“What I have asked the council to do is to really carry out an assessment of the damage. The public infrastructure, in particular the roads and the bridges, send it in to us and we will make a special allocation. We have done that in the past.”
He added: “I have heard mixed reports about (previous flood relief schemes). I have met people who didn’t apply for the schemes. I have met people who the schemes have worked well for them and others who found it too cumbersome with too many texts and too many forms to fill in. It has improved over the years and will improve again.
“There is an initial grant of €5,000 to get people going and then a higher grant of €20,000 after that. But I think we will have to increase that as the level of damage to some of the stock here, particularly people who brought stock in for Christmas is very high. But there do have to be checks and balance.”
He emphasised that it wasn’t a case of politicians turning up to show solidarity and then disappearing leaving struggling towns to recover.
“The Government is here to help. We understand how severely affected large parts of Waterford and Cork and other parts of the south coast have been. We are not just here to express solidarity. We are here to say that the emergency services and the public services are here for the immediate clean up and then in the medium term we will put the financial aid in place. So the families and businesses can recover and the infrastructure is fully repaired.
“The anger and frustration is entirely understandable. And I can identify with it. We have done about fifty flood relief schemes. Places like Douglas, Togher and Bandon (in Cork). They work. There is another ninety (flood defence schemes) that are in progress.”
He added that ‘corners’ shouldn’t be cut when it comes to setting up flood relief measures in towns across Ireland.
“We can’t cut corners on them. There are environmental issues. There are very often objections to the schemes and very often they end up in court as well.
“This one in Midleton, preliminary works have been done already. The environmental assessment is under way and we intend to put in a planning application for next year. The scheme is being progressed as quickly as possible. If you don’t do it right you get stuck in court and you might lose the case in court. And it gets put back again.
“It is a great town. I have relatives here and visit regularly. The flood relief scheme, we will do as quickly as we can.”
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil TD James O’Connor said that homes and businesses in Castlemartyr, Cloyne and Youghal were also badly hit by the storm.
“There is very substantial flood damage done. Water in Midleton hospital went up as high as five feet. This wasn’t just a foot of flooding.
“In some locations the water was very high. A number of buildings have been completely destroyed. There are landslides as well in some areas as a consequence of the flooding. Roads caved in. So this is a very dark moment for east Cork. Perhaps its darkest.”