Retailers angry with cover story

THESE two men have a lot in common. They both work in Clonmel, have lost a lot money from the recent floods and are very angry.

Garage owner George Mordaunt has written off 28 flood-damaged new cars, worth about €400,000, while Aidan Fox, the proprietor of the Fitzgerald and Nash furniture and carpet warehouse at Irishtown, is facing a bill of €20,000 because he was refused cover due to a previous claim for floods in 2000.

Mr Fox yesterday voiced his anger at not being compensated by the Government despite €4 million in humanitarian aid being allocated for householders. Businesses will not benefit from the aid package.

Mr Mordaunt, who employs 35 people in three garages in Clonmel, warned last night that the town must stay on flood alert.

He said: “The flood season in Clonmel historically lasts from November to the end of January. So unfortunately we are not out of the flood situation yet,” he said.

Mr Mordaunt had to “eliminate” 28 new Nissan models from their stock, due to flood damage.

He said they had 175 new cars parked on a site hit by the flood.

“When the flood alert came, we initiated a flood action plan which involved the moving of those 175 new cars to sites on higher ground.

“We completed that operation between 9.30pm on Thursday night and 1.30am on Friday morning. The reason 28 cars were damaged was we moved them to a location on Davis Road which had never been flooded before, but which flooded for the first time ever,” said Mr Mordaunt.

This was the first time new stock was flooded.

The damaged cars, he said, have been removed from their stock and would be sold within the motor trade in conjunction with their insurers.

Mr Mordaunt said that people with damaged cars face repair bills of up to €3,000.

He hit out at a decision by local councils to delay drainage works proposed by the Office of Public Works in 2000.

He said the councils opposed the work on the grounds of environmental impact on the river.

“If these people could have been walking down through Clonmel at 5.30am on Friday morning and saw people being lifted out of their homes in dressing gowns and put into army lorries they might have got a reality impact of what is happening in Clonmel,” said Mr Mordaunt.

Mr Fox, meanwhile, said he raised the compensation issue when Junior Finance Minister Tom Parlon visited his premises last week.

“(Mr Parlon) said that there was nothing in place for businesses and it was highly unlikely there would be. That was the bottom line after a long discussion ... It is discrimination.”

Damien Cassidy, chairman of the Flood Distress Committee set up in Dublin following major flooding in Ringsend in 2002, said the only way flood-prone properties could secure insurance cover was if the Government installed promised flood defence schemes in vulnerable areas.

“This would be a cheaper way to deal with the problem for the taxpayer and the Government,” he said.