Cabinet confirms emergency flood fund

Emergency cash will be made available to victims of the recent flooding in parts of Cork to help cover the basic contents of homes,including carpets, flooring, and furniture.

The Cabinet yesterday agreed to allow households in Cork to apply to a €10m fund, which was set up to help victims of flooding in Dublin last year and Galway in 2009.

A total of €800,000 of that fund has already been spent, meaning about €9.2m is left to help the homes damaged across Cork City and county.

The decision follows a memo brought to Cabinet on extending the fund by Social Protection Minister Joan Burton.

The means-tested emergency assistance will be for “hardship alleviation asopposed to full compensation”, according to a statement from the department.

It is expected mainly to benefit homes that were not covered by insurance.

“The scheme does not cover commercial andbusiness losses, losses covered by an insurance policy, or any loss or damage to private rented accommodation or local authority accommodation,” the department said.

Residents said they hoped the fund would be easy to access. However, it is understood that extending the spare capacity of the €10m was considered quicker than trying to secure new funding.

People can apply through their local welfare offices, which are already providing exceptional and urgent needs payments for things like food, clothing, fuel, and household goods.

On his way into the cabinet meeting yesterday,Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, from Cork, said the job of the Government was to help people “and there has been an awful lot of suffering in Cork in recent weeks that maybe hasn’t got the focus of attention that it needed”.