Executive responds to latest floods emergency

The Executive today announced an emergency payment scheme to help householders hit by severe flooding across Northern Ireland.

The emergency payment was approved after two of the lead Ministers in charge of the Executive's flooding response met.  Environment Minister Sammy Wilson and Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy also met with senior officials from government departments and agencies at Stormont to assess the situation.  Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew was briefed on the meeting.

The Ministers were told almost one month's worth of rainfall fell in 12 hours across Northern Ireland during Saturday.

The Roads Service, Northern Ireland Water, the Rivers Agency and the Housing Executive have also been working with the emergency services and local government to clear roads and homes affected by the heavy rainfall.

Government agencies received thousands of phone calls from the public.

Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy said: "The Executive would like to pay tribute to the heroic work of the agencies in dealing with what was an extraordinary weather event.

"The agencies met on Friday after receiving weather warnings and were able to review the plans and liaise on arrangements for the weekend.

"As a result Northern Ireland Water was able to deploy resources and contractors throughout the event and around the clock.

"Nevertheless such was the extremity of the rainfall that hundreds of homes were affected.  The Roads Service has launched an operation to pump out 100 million litres of water from the Broadway underpass in Belfast and I have asked Roads Service to carry out a full investigation into the flooding of the underpass."

Environment Minister Sammy Wilson, whose department will administer the emergency payment scheme, said: "Ministers have agreed that, as in the wake of the June 2007 floods, funds will be made available to local councils to help those most affected by this weekend’s serious floods.

The funding has been approved by Finance Minister Nigel Dodds and councils are being kept fully informed about the administration of the scheme.

"I have been in contact with colleagues in the Executive and we are in agreement that funding should be made available through local councils to help people most severely affected to get back on their feet again and to assist them in ensuring their homes are habitable.

"My deepest sympathy goes out to those affected by this flooding. I want to congratulate all of the emergency services involved for their hard work and dedication in dealing with its effects."

Mr Wilson said the amount which would be made available would be determined once the full scale of the impact is known. The money would be released to councils as and when they had identified the most severe cases.

Officials will be liaising with councils to establish the extent of the need.

The Minister stressed that, as was the case last year, the focus for this aid was not the provision of financial compensation but instead the provision of practical assistance in areas such as cleaning up flood damage, restoring essential household utilities and ensuring homes are made habitable as quickly as possible.

Notes to Editors:

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