Government willing to open fund for flood-hit sports clubs, says minister
For Was Further In Preventing In Its Club Praised Work Flooding Glanmire Sarsfields Gaa
The Government is willing to open up a fund for those businesses and sports clubs affected by flooding in East Cork and Waterford who could not get insurance.
Speaking in the Dáil during a topical issues debate this evening, junior sports minister Thomas Byrne said the Department of Enterprise is ready to activate its Flooding Support Scheme for those businesses. Mr Byrne said the Government is particularly willing to examine the case of sports clubs as he praised Sarsfields GAA Club for its work in preventing further flooding in Glanmire.
Sinn Féin TD for East Cork Pat Buckley, whose constituency office in Midleton was among those premises hit by the deluge, said the town had been described as "a war zone".
He asked Mr Byrne whether those whose homes had previously been flooded or who did not have insurance would be able to access funding. He also asked if car insurance would cover those vehicles which had been destroyed.
Mr Byrne said the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM) within the Department of Housing had been "working closely" with Met Éireann. He said an orange weather warning had been issued for Cork on Monday and the NDFEM and a European flash flooding monitoring system had alerted local authorities but that "heavy and persistent rain" had led to rivers bursting their banks.
Meanwhile, a Cork-based senator said the flooding highlighted the pace of planning applications for flood schemes.
Senator Tim Lombard said if planned flood defence schemes had been in place in some Cork communities, homes and businesses would have been saved from the water damage that ripped through their homes and properties.
“These include red tape, constant delays, objections, judicial reviews, and High Court challenges. It can go on for years, but the weather and climate doesn’t adhere to our slow and crippling mechanisms."
In 2020, Mr Buckley told the Dáil that a flood defence scheme in Midleton could have cost just €25,000.
"A CFRAM study in 2013 identified the problems along with solutions to alleviate those problems, but unfortunately that report was shelved and the works were not carried out," he said.
"The costs to alleviate the flooding were estimated in the range of €25,000 at the time. When the predicted one-in-100-year event happened it affected nearly 200 houses."