ENTERPRISE Minister Peter Burke has said he will seek urgent approval to reopen the government’s emergency business flooding scheme for businesses impacted by flooding in Bantry ‘should this be necessary’.
Minister Burke was responding tonight to today’s flooding event which saw approximately 20 premises damaged by rising waters this afternoon.
The Minister said he was ‘closely monitoring the reports of significant flooding’ in Bantry today and acknowledged the distress and impact it was having on traders and small businesses.
He said that his department was liaising with Cork County Council. ‘I would like to reassure business owners that Government will stand ready to provide support,’ hes said.
‘We have previously provided this support through the emergency business flooding schemes for small businesses where businesses, through no fault of their own, have been impacted by flooding events and could not get access to insurance cover,’ he added. ‘In this event, I will be working across government to reopen this scheme and provide assistance to our much-valued local businesses at this difficult time,’ the Minister said.
Meanwhile, Cork County Council said this evening that up to 65mm of rain was recorded in some locations over the past 12 hours.
Its crisis management team convened twice today and was scheduled to meet again tonight to assess the impact of these conditions.
There was specific focus on the Bantry area throughout the day but the 7pm high tide ‘passed without major incident’, it said, adding: ‘We are continuing to monitor weather conditions across the county. Council crews remain on the ground.
The Council said that pumping arrangements are in place at known locations and several roads have been impacted as a result of localised surface water flooding.
Issues such as flooding and road damage should be reported to the Council’s Emergency Out of Hours number on (021) 4800048.
In the event of an emergency call 999 or 112 and request the fire service, ambulance service, Gardaí or Irish Coastguard as appropriate. Do not assume others will do this.
In the event of a disruption to power supply, contact ESB Networks at 1800 372 999. Fallen or grounded wires should be avoided and the public are advised to call ESB in assisting with the identification of fallen wires.
Weather updates are available at www.met.ie. Cork County Council will continue to provide updates on www.corkcoco.ie and across the Council’s social media channels @Corkcoco.
