Mayor calls for flood aid to be speeded up

AN independent group led by St Vincent de Paul, the Red Cross and local community welfare officers must be set up to fast-track flooding compensation money to those most in need.

The call will be made today by Cork city’s Lord Mayor Dara Murphy.

He will urge all Oireachtas members in the city and county to support an attempt to secure vital funding for hundreds of families still stricken by last November’s floods crisis.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner before this morning’s meeting of all Cork-based TDs and Senators at City Hall, the Fine Gael councillor said politics must be put to one side to create a united voice for those facing crippling costs.

While the Government promised €10 million in national emergency aid in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, just over €313,000 has been provided to Cork victims since the crisis.

As a result, hundreds of people in Ireland’s second city are facing rising costs they cannot pay off, including some who are up to €80,000 in debt and are still awaiting compensation from insurance firms.

In an attempt to address the issue, City Hall along with St Vincent de Paul, local HSE community welfare officers and the Red Cross are compiling a database of victims in significant need.

Approximately €2m is needed immediately to address their issues, said Mr Murphy, who added that the ongoing failure of central Government to address the funding delays shows why an “independent, transparent and local” group was now needed to allocate the promised funds.

“Community welfare officers, the HSE, the council’s housing people, the Red Cross and the St Vincent de Paul have gone door to door to hundreds of people to get an extraordinary amount of data on what is needed.

“We have files on people, we know exactly how much they have received from insurance compensation or other funds and exactly how much they still need, and there is a clear advantage in that information in terms of creating a local group to delegate this still-awaited financial support,” Mr Murphy explained.

“As a local authority we were largely left on our own to deal with the flooding when it took place, but we haven’t been given any role or function in the distribution of this €10m fund which was quickly promised at the time.

“The way central Government financial support operates is that people who are in a position to advocate for themselves can get the funding, but a large number of people affected by the floods are not in that position.

“I know of people €80,000 in debt over this, they are in a terrible way.”

“It is over seven months since the money was promised. We can show them the places, cases and amounts people need, and we can do it immediately,” he said.