The response of Dublin City Council to this week's flash flooding was not adequate, Minister of State for the Office of Public Works Brian Hayes said today.
Speaking after the floods that caused tens of millions worth of damage along the east coast, Mr Hayes said it was important lessons were learned from the experience by examining the good and bad elements of the response by the local authorities concerned.
Dublin City Council has defended its handling of the floods with city engineer Michael Phillips saying the extent and intensity of the rainfall was unprecedented, and that the council had done all it could on the night.
Asked on RTÉ Morning Ireland if he thought the council's response was good enough, Mr Hayes said: "No, it wasn't adequate in my view" but that "in fairness" the amount of rain that fell was enormous.
"I heard the charges yesterday in relation to [closing] the floodgates and lack of sandbags and also the lack of information around the alerts," he continued. "That's why what we need to do…is to find out from the local authorities where the response was inadequate."
Mr Hayes said the Government would look on applications for humanitarian relief made by homeowners unable to insure their homes because of past flooding in a "sympathetic light".
"If funding has to be found in terms of dealing with a number of people who are really in a destitute position we will look upon that but I think it's too early to say that now. We need to get the review and assessment underway and find some conclusions," he said.
Mr Hayes said he intended to examine the possibility of a form of State insurance for people who could not insure their homes because they were prone to flooding. He said the last administration had proposed such an initiative but opted not to go with it because the State would be liable.
He said officials from the Office of Public Works were in discussion with the Irish Insurance Federation about establishing a protocol on how insurance firms might deal with homeowners with properties prone to flooding. He hoped to make a statement about a new protocol in a few weeks.
"What is indefensible in my view is where the State through the Office of Public Works funds capital projects and put in flood defences and then we find local residents in that community can't obtain insurance," he said.
