Cabinet to agree financial support for flooded Cork and Waterford properties
Lia Vaz cleaning up at The Urban Shave which had been renovated six months ago and is now destroyed after the flooding in Midleton, Co Cork. Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney will bring a memo to Cabinet to allow for payouts to businesses that could go beyond €70,000, while Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys is to bring details of an enhanced humanitarian scheme to support households. Picture: Dan Linehan
A multimillion-euro financial support package for families and businesses hit by floods in Cork and Waterford is to be signed off on by the Government on Tuesday.
Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney will bring a memo to Cabinet to allow for payouts to businesses of up to €100,00, while Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys is to bring details of an enhanced humanitarian scheme to support households.
Speaking ahead of today's meeting, Mr Coveney said: "What I’m doing now is putting a proposal together, for Government, that we would be able to apply the scheme as it is currently to parts of Cork that were flooded.
“Then to have a second scheme, that the Red Cross can apply, when appropriate, particularly in Midleton, with much higher thresholds where businesses will get a higher initial payment."
It is understood that the proposals include:
The existing humanitarian relief scheme for businesses, with quick payments of up to €5,000 available, alongside assessed and audited payouts of up to €20,000;
A second emergency relief scheme, which would see quick payments of €10,000 made available, with audited and assessed relief up to €100,000.
Mr Coveney said what had happened in Midleton was the "worst damage" he had seen and a new, enhanced scheme was needed.
Separately, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan is to introduce a new low-cost loan scheme to help homeowners with the cost of retrofitting houses to make them more energy efficient, warmer, and cheaper to run.
A total of €500m will be set aside for the energy upgrade loan scheme, with homeowners able to borrow between €5,000 and €75,000 at interest rates that will be significantly lower than those available through banks and other lenders.
Meanwhile, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien is to bring details of the much-anticipated 'right of first refusal' for tenants to Cabinet.
The general scheme of the bill sets out a new statutory right to purchase for tenants if their landlord decides to sell the property in which they are living.
Where a notice of termination is served on the basis of the landlord’s intention to sell the rented home, the landlord would be obliged under section 12 of the Residential Tenancies Act to simultaneously invite their tenant to make a bid to purchase the property within 90 days.
After the 90-day period, the landlord would be further obliged to invite any tenant who made an unsuccessful bid during the initial 90-day period to make a further bid to purchase the property at a price equal to the final sales price that the landlord would be willing to agree with a third party on the open market. The landlord would be obliged to accept such a further matching bid from the tenant.
A spokesperson for the minister said the bill will bolster measures that are already helping tenants to secure homes, including the tenant in situ scheme.
Finally, Tánaiste Micheál Martin is to seek approval for a new communications framework for the Global Ireland strategy, particularly focused on a new digital hub.
As part of the framework, the Government will develop a new online Ireland House under the Ireland.ie domain. This is proposed to be the central source of information for any international Government engagements.
In particular, the website will be used to connect Ireland's embassies, consulates, and state agency offices abroad.
The Global Ireland strategy was launched in 2018, with the aim of increasing Ireland's international footprint and influence.
