Plans to means test flood victims criticised

PLANS to means test flood victims seeking humanitarian aid have been strongly attacked.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore warned those who suffered the trauma of seeing their homes and businesses damaged by flooding should not be put through such an intensive probe in order to access community welfare funding.

Mr Gilmore said it was absurd to expect people to produce documents like bank statements which may have been destroyed by torrents of water.

The Labour leader insisted the normal means-tested community welfare response was “not appropriate” for flood relief and also backed calls for an independent inquiry into water management in Cork and other affected areas.

“Can some arrangement not be made whereby advance payments are made to householders who have been flooded, which might in the course of time be restored from insurance payments or otherwise? At the least, people should not be forced to go through a means test, having gone through the trauma of being flooded,” Mr Gilmore told the Dáil.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen defended the level of aid offered and said he would try to ensure means testing did not involve too much red tape.

“We want an approach that is as flexible and localised as possible,” he said.

Mr Cowen said the €10m Humanitarian Assistance Scheme was in addition to any funding that would be provided in the normal way through community welfare officers.

Fine Gael front bencher Denis Naughten dismissed the sum as “paltry” saying many families affected by floods would get “zero help”.