Hanafin: spent less than 10% of budget

Average payments under the humanitarian assistance scheme for the thousands of families whose homes were destroyed by the recent floods are running at just €680, social and family affairs minister Mary Hanafin has admitted.

More than a month after the floods have largely subsided, payments have been made to 1,091 individuals totalling almost €750,000 or less than 10% of the €10m minister Hanafin made available to provide emergency assistance.

The biggest payout so far has been €20,000 to one individual which suggests that some payouts are no more than a few hundred euro. With tens of thousands of homes affected, the relatively small number of claims suggests that people are not bothering to seek assistance from the government and are instead pursuing private household insurance claims.

The scheme is designed to cover items of immediate need such as clothing, food, bedding, heating, hire of dehumidifiers and emergency accommodation.

It provides hardship alleviation as opposed to full compensation and depends on the severity of the damage, the loss experienced and the household income. Damage to businesses, cars, and losses covered by household insurance are not covered under the scheme, the minister said in the Dáil last week.

"As the flood waters have receded in some areas, individuals are now in a better position to assess the extent of damage to their home.

"In these cases, payments have been made in respect of essential household items such as carpets, flooring, furniture and white goods," Hanafin noted.

Though there is no backlog of claims and to date just one claim has been refused, the minister expects the level of claims to increase substantially over the next few weeks.

While assistance is available under the scheme for structural repairs to homes not covered by household insurance, she admitted that "very few large scale claims have been made at this stage".

But she said that this was because many homeowners had not yet established the cost of the repair and were still awaiting builder's estimates.

"It is expected that large-scale claims will be received over the coming weeks," said the minister, though she was unwilling to say what the final cost would be.