Cork businesses and clubs devastated by storm floods could now get up to €100k

BUSINESSES and sporting clubs in Midleton and throughout Cork which were devastated in Storm Babet flooding could now receive up to €100,000 to help them recover from the damage caused by last week’s deluges after the Government approved of two enhanced schemes to support flood damaged business at its meeting today.

Following the announcement of the scheme by Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Simon Coveney, he said the schemes were ‘set up to provide urgent assistance to businesses that were unable, through no fault of their own, to get insurance to help with the costs of repairing the damage caused by flooding’.

“Given the unprecedented level of damage caused by Storm Babet, I am happy to be able to offer an enhanced version of the scheme that should be of assistance to businesses that suffered exceptional damage,” said Minister Coveney.

“As with similar weather events in the past, the Irish Red Cross will administer and make payments under the schemes on behalf of my department.” 

The relief on offer comes in the form of two schemes, the Emergency Business Flooding Scheme and an enhanced version of the same scheme. Under the standard scheme, businesses will receive up to €5000 and, following an assessment, could receive up to €20k.  Under the enhanced scheme, businesses that have been 'severely impacted' will receive iniital support of up to €10,000 while, subject to a more detailed assessment, a small number of firms and clubs could receive a total of no more than €100.000.

Speaking on RTÉ on Tuesday evening, Irish Red Cross director Deirdre Garvey that a team of valuators was in place to meet businesses and they were keen to get the work underway as quickly as possible.

Ms. Garvey suggested the work to assess damages could be carried out within weeks for the estimated 150 businesses and clubs who were impacted in the flooding.

INCREASED LIMITS FOR HOUSEHOLDERS

The support for businesses was announced at the same time as increased limits were agreed to allow householders to access income tested funding to help them repair homes impacted by the downpours.

With immediate effect, the income limits for the scheme will be increased from €30k to €50,000 for a single person, €50,000 to €90,000 for a couple and from €10k to €15,000 for each dependent child.

According to Cork North Central Fine Gael TD, Colm Burke, there already have been 223 payments totalling €147,260 made to people impacted by the flooding.

“Communities in Cork have been ravaged by flooding over the recent past and are to be commended by pulling together to help each other during a very stressful time,” said Deputy Burke who said that the additional funding scheme announcements ‘should give an additional boost to those qualifying households and businesses who are working hard to get back on their feet’.