Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 February 2025
1. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will put financial support in place for businesses affected by Storm Éowyn; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6593/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt is almost four weeks since Storm Éowyn battered the country. I wrote to the Minister early in February to ask that a scheme be put in place urgently to assist businesses affected by the storm. Last week Sinn Féin used its Private Members' business time to call for Government support to businesses. Why has no scheme been put in place to date? Businesses need to know today what help they can expect from the Government in the aftermath of the worst storm in history.
I wish Deputy Conway-Walsh the very best of luck in her role as spokesperson. I look forward to working with her. I had a very good relationship with her predecessor, Deputy O'Reilly. The Ministers of State, Deputies Smyth and Dillon, and I look forward to delivering the programme for Government in the years ahead.
I am acutely aware of the significant challenges the impacts of Storm Éowyn have caused for business owners over recent weeks. Since 24 January, I have been closely monitoring the situation with Storm Éowyn and its impacts on the business community through regular updates from the national emergency co-ordination group and updates from local enterprise offices in the counties with the most significant and prolonged impacts. Following the immediate damage caused by the storm, many businesses have been impacted by outages of power, water and communications networks.
With regard the issue of potential schemes to support businesses with losses arising from Storm Éowyn, in the first instance I encourage businesses to seek recourse through their insurance providers to cover losses they have incurred. I have been engaging directly with the insurance federation and my clear understanding is most losses incurred by businesses, such as property damage, loss of earnings and spoilage of stock, fall within standard insurance cover and the damage caused by the storm is a standard insured peril for insurance policies. I welcome that Insurance Ireland has said that house insurance premiums, for example, are not generally impacted by one event such as this storm, but rather on a range of many different rating factors and insured perils.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has in the past operated targeted emergency humanitarian flood relief schemes in response to specific flooding incidents. These schemes are specifically targeted at providing a contribution to small businesses of up to 20 employees as well as community, voluntary and sporting bodies which have experienced damage as a result of flooding and to help them get back up and running. A condition of eligibility for these schemes is that the businesses must not have been able to secure flood insurance through no fault of their own.
The programme for Government includes a commitment to an extreme weather event assistance scheme, which we are working on establishing.
The Minister might clarify if he got agreement from the insurance companies that the amount they pay will not be impacted. Businesses have two concerns about insurance. The first relates to the excess. If the excess is a couple of thousand euro and their loss is less than that, obviously they will not be able to claim. They are also afraid that their premiums will go up, meaning that over a three- or five-year period, they end up paying back more than they got in the first instance.
The Minister said he has been in contact with the water, electricity and communications companies. There are still hundreds of businesses and homes in Mayo and other counties that do not have proper communications. There have been no proper responses from Eir, Vodafone and the other communications companies. Will the Minister clarify the extent of the conversations he has had with them and when those people will be reconnected because it is really impacting their businesses?
I thank the Deputy for her response. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine has announced a scheme for investment in the horticulture sector, which has been very significantly impacted.
I was very quick to contact the insurance federation to get assurances that businesses affected would be covered regarding their standard practice. While I cannot go into the detail of individual policies regarding excess because they are very different, I can assure people that, in the general course of action and insurance peril, it is part standard insurance cover.
Regarding communications, I have been on to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. We are very concerned about getting businesses and first responders which suffered outages at that time back up and running. We have a lot of work to do in that regard. This week Uisce Éireann will get 100 generators to future-proof for such events. The country needs to learn how we respond in future to a very significant event like this. We need to accept there were gaps in the response. Following the investment that went into rural areas through many schemes, there was an exceptional response and communities really rose to the challenge.
I want to get clarity on this. Will a scheme be put in place for businesses? I welcome what the Minister has said about horticulture. As he knows, the land in Mayo and the west in general does not lend itself to that. Will we have a scheme similar to the one we had for Storm Babet? It is important that is done sooner rather than later because people and businesses want certainty. There are many people who are self-employed, including farmers and fishermen. Last week, I spoke to either the Minister or the Taoiseach about an instance relating to oyster farming. About €160,000 has been lost and they do not have insurance. They will not be able to operate again unless they are compensated for that. We need clarity on it. I understand what is stated in the programme for Government but the vagueness around it is causing concern for businesses. Businesses cannot sustain the losses they have incurred following this storm.
In line with the commitment in the programme for Government, we are establishing a scheme. Specifically for this event, we need to be clear that the first recourse for businesses is through their insurance to cover them for damage, loss of earnings and spoilage of stock. That is the critical way in which they seek recourse. It is very different from flood damage where businesses could not get insurance. That is a very different scenario. We are establishing a scheme. I also point out that, regarding the statutory deadlines businesses face through the CRO and the Revenue Commissioners, we have worked to ensure there is significant leeway for businesses if they fail to meet their regulatory requirements at this time.
For the key impacted areas, as I have said, the Department of agriculture has stepped up with a scheme for horticulture. We will be assisting on a lot of agricultural damage that happened. For businesses, we need to work to establish a statutory scheme in future, on which work is under way. At this time, the first recourse for businesses is through their insurance companies. If there are any specific cases, the local enterprise offices, LEOs, are very happy to work with businesses and support them in any way we can.
