All emergency services and the relevant Dublin City Council personnel and pumping equipment are on standby today as high tides are anticipated again in Irishtown and East Wall in the city.
The council said indications were that the combination of weather events which led to the flooding of February 1st was unlikely to recur, but it was necessary that precautionary measures were in place. More than 30,000 sandbags had been sent to the areas at risk and further stocks of sandbags were available, the council said.
These areas are identified as Spencer Dock, Stella Gardens, Shamrock Cottages, East Wall Road and Sandymount, where extensive containment works have been carried out since the last flooding. Containment works have also been carried out at South Lotts Road near Shelbourne Park greyhound stadium.
Mr Eoin Ryan, a Minister for State and local Fianna Fáil TD, said €5 million had been confirmed as humanitarian aid for victims of the recent flooding. The scheme, he said, provided for relief of hardship such as damage to homes, loss of income, homelessness, serious injury and extreme hardship.
A Labour Party senator, Mr Joe Costello, said yesterday that residents in East Wall and North Strand were worried that breaches in the CIÉ walls, which occurred at the beginning of February, had not been repaired and the walls reinforced sufficiently to withstand further high tides.
"Hundreds of people are still out of their homes," Mr Costello added, "and it would be a disaster if the remedial work that is now being undertaken to make their homes habitable again was to be swept away in another flood."
The Government's offer of €5 million to help hundreds of flood victims followed provisional estimates of the bill by Red Cross assessors. So far, the Red Cross has received 400 applications for help from around the State, though most are in Ringsend and East Wall.
The Government meanwhile has insisted that it had acted quickly and it hoped that interim payments could be made before the end of February.
Before the Dáil's Finance and Public Service Committee, the Minister of State for the Office of Public Works, Mr Martin Cullen, said the compensation scheme would cover "relief of hardship, not compensation for losses".
The chairman of the Red Cross, Mr David Andrews, welcomed the allocation. The deadline for applications closes on Friday. Most applications from outside Dublin came from Louth, Meath and Wicklow.
Meanwhile yesterday, a 13- year-old boy on a school outing had to be rescued when he fell near the summit of Maulin Mountain in Co Wicklow. His arm was broken but the rescue was delayed by the weather conditions. A marine rescue helicopter flew him to Tallaght Hospital.
The rescue was co-ordinated by the Glen of Imaal and Dublin Mountain rescue teams in conjunction with the Garda. The alarm was raised by a teacher who was supervising the group.
Met Éireann said snow fell yesterday in Donegal, Kerry, the Dublin Mountains and the Galtee Mountains in Co Tipperary.