Over €235,000 in aid paid to households hit by flooding

The Government has paid out over €235,000 in humanitarian assistance to 270 households affected by the recent flooding, with most aid going to Galway, Cork and Mayo.

Department of Social Protection officials told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection on Wednesday the payments mainly covered essential items such as food, clothing, toiletries, fuel and meals for families who had been relocated to emergency accommodation.

Most support from the humanitarian assistance scheme had been provided in Galway, Cork and Mayo, but also to affected households in other counties including Tipperary, Westmeath, Clare, Kerry, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wicklow, Sligo, and Roscommon.

Helen Faughnan, assistant secretary of the department, said the payments had been provided since the beginning of December and the amount paid out to those in difficulty was likely to increase in the coming weeks.

In 2012, when the Government approved the scheme, it gave the department permission to spend “up to €10 million”, Ms Faughnan said.

At present, there was no cap on the amount that could be paid out to a household and in one case a family had received €50,000 to help make their home habitable after flooding.

Each individual case would be met on its merits, Ms Faughnan said.

Fianna Fáil TD Willie O'Dea asked whether there was any provision to make payments to self-employed people for loss of earnings due to the fact they were unable to go to work while dealing with flooding in their homes.

Ms Faughnan said there was no provision to pay for loss of earnings, but that where a self-employed person could not pay a bill, for example, it was possible that this would be covered.

“It is designed to be a flexible scheme,” she said.

Paying tribute to the community welfare staff around the country administering the funds, Ms Faughnan said they took the welfare aspect of it particularly seriously.

She acknowledged that some people affected by the flooding were under “extreme stress”.

Ms Faughnan said she did not have overall figures for the applications yet to be processed under the scheme because decisions were being made on them almost immediately.

“They are very quickly decided at this emergency level.”

The scheme is means tested and households earning over €70,000 pay a contribution towards their costs for every €1,000 of income they earn above that threshold.

Committee chair and Labour Party TD Joanna Tuffy said she felt €70,000 was a "generous threshold" for the scheme, bearing in mind that 51 per cent of incomes were €30,000 or less.

Ms Faughnan told the committee the department was continuing to engage with local authorities, gardaí and other emergency personnel to ensure that “all available supports” were provided to householders affected by the recent flooding.

Assistance was not provided under the scheme, however, for losses covered by insurance, for commercial and business losses, or any loss or damage to private rented accommodation or local authority accommodation.

A separate emergency scheme for small businesses and community, voluntary and sporting bodies is being operated by the Irish Red Cross.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has put assistance measures in place for the farming community in respect of animal welfare and fodder aid.