Sir, – On February 1st, Limerick city experienced the worst flooding in living history when the Shannon and the Abbey Rivers burst their banks with a surge that devastated homes in many parts of the city.
This Saturday, March 1st, it will be exactly four weeks since I have been able to sleep in my bed, since I could lock my own door and feel secure in my own home. I am a home-owner with a mortgage and home loan to pay on a house that is no longer habitable, and I am depending on the kindness of an aunt to keep a roof over my head.
I am one of the unfortunate ones who could not get flood insurance.
The truly sickening twist in this story is that one month down the road the Government has kept its back turned on the private home-owners who cannot get flood cover. This was an unprecedented event that required an unprecedented reaction. To date the only thing that has been unprecedented is the lack of leadership, from Government, and especially our Taoiseach, in putting the minds of its now critically vulnerable citizens at ease.
To see the British prime minister appear on news channels and declare money wasn’t going to be a problem, left me disillusioned with the country that I love. I felt sick to think that a government I voted for, in the hope of seeing a new Ireland, has left the private homeowners to fight for themselves. What kind of a country have we become, when balancing the books has outweighed the need to repair the homes of its citizens after a natural disaster?
Many Ministers have come down to look at the destruction, always when the cameras are running or snapping. They have looked forlorn and nodded at the sad stories they have heard from us mere mortals that lived in these little working class shells we used to call our homes and when the cameras left, they did too.
The damage to my home has been priced at €40-50,000, I have access to about €10,000, again thanks to the kindness of family and friends. Last week I received a cheque for €2,883 from our Government as its contribution to getting my life back in order, chiefly to be used to buy furniture and appliances. Does it think by this token gesture it has washed its hands of the problem? If so, Government members should be ashamed of themselves.
What good are appliances and furniture in a house with no internal walls, serious structural damage and without power or heat? I am 33 year old, a young professional.
I always wanted to be part of this country and help it regain its status as a great nation. However, after this fiasco I have lost hope. If this is how my country wants to treat those who have been subjected to a natural disaster I no longer want to be here and be part of it.
I have urged our Government not to let its citizens down. My neighbours and I have not asked for help before, and we do not like having to ask now, but we have no choice. We will not beg. We should not have to. It’s sad to say that after getting such a soaking, our Government has left us high and dry. – Yours, etc,
Dr JAMES RING,
Athlunkard Street,
Limerick.