'Beyond ridiculous': Midleton people who held back Storm Babet won't get flood grant

The €5.8m scheme was set up to help the owners of homes and shops in the town, which was devastated by storms in October 2023, to pay for small flood barriers at the entrances to their properties.

However, just under 100 of the 700 or so people who have applied for the protection scheme grant have been turned down since it started taking applications on October 7.

They include people who happened to be at home when Storm Babet hit the town and now feel they are being penalised for taking action to prevent their houses being damaged.

Midleton resident Paddy Murray, who lives on the Willowbank Estate, off the Mill Road, is one of them.

He managed to quickly release sewerage and drain covers to divert water away from his and his neighbours’ properties, and prevent damage to the inside of his or their houses.

However, other neighbours who weren’t around and whose homes suffered damage, can qualify for the flood protection grant.

The other main criterion for qualifying for the scheme, which closes for applications at noon on Monday, November 11, is that applicants must live in a house that will be protected by the forthcoming Midleton Flood Relief Scheme. 

“I am completely baffled about why I am deemed ineligible,” said Mr Murray, who also lives in an area that will be protected by the flood relief scheme.

“The only reason why the inside of my house wasn’t flooded is because I was at home to do something about it. Apart from that, I am in a property that will be protected by the flood relief scheme.

It is beyond ridiculous that houses on the same estate as mine qualify for this grant, but I don’t. 

Local Social Democrats councillor Liam Quaide has repeatedly raised the matter with the council. He has been told by the council the scheme is not open to dwellings or premises that came close to being flooded.

The reason for this, he has also been told, is that if a property only came close to flooding during Storm Babet, the probability of it flooding again is considered low.

Cork County Council has received a total of 702 applications for inclusion in the IPP scheme to date.

Of these, 559 properties met one of the criteria for inclusion in the scheme. Some 98 properties were not deemed eligible on first appraisal and 45 applications are still at assessment stage.

Mr Quaide said: “While the flood gates will not protect against floods of the scale that we saw during Storm Babet, they will provide some peace of mind in the context of more frequent, less intense flood events.

It has, however, been a source of great frustration and disappointment for some property owners that they are being excluded from the scheme when they are clearly at risk of flooding and where, in some instance, their neighbours in the same estate are being offered the grant.

“These property owners are being excluded on the basis that they happened to narrowly avoid internal flooding of their property on October 18, 2023, for a variety of reasons.

“In most of the cases, the residents happened to be home on the day when the flood struck. 

"Through quick thinking and resourcefulness, they took action that kept the waters that were flowing in around the curtilage of their properties out of their houses.”

A spokesperson for Cork County Council said: “Most applications are being received through www.YourCouncil.ie which allows property owners to submit their details online.

“The criteria for a property to be deemed eligible for the scheme are that it must have flooded internally during Storm Babet or be one of the properties which will be protected by the Midleton flood relief scheme.

“Properties which were not deemed eligible will be retained on the system. Once the initial eligible properties have been inspected Cork County Council will consult with OPW to explore the possibility of including additional properties.”

Applications for the Midleton and East Cork Individual Property Protection Scheme can be made via the Cork County Council portal at www.YourCouncil.ie until November 11.