Weeks on from the fire at the old Jute Factory, the future of many businesses which operated in the Tycor Business Centre remains uncertain.
With the Taoiseach and government Ministers in Walsh Park when the fire broke out, the Government were quick to respond and Minster for Enterprise Peter Burke met with devastated local business owners in the days after the event.
A €750,000 support package soon followed, which involved “direct engagement with those affected to identify key issues such as physical damage, job losses, insurance gaps, and operational requirements”.
“These insights will enable the departments and agencies to develop appropriate supports to assist organisations in getting back to business.”
Social Democrat Councillor Mary Roche said the €750,000 allocated is simply not enough, and reflects the fact that 2026 is not a year of a general or local election.
Speaking at the recent meeting of Waterford Metropolitan District Council, Cllr Roche said: “I was speaking to businesses as late as yesterday, they haven’t seen a penny yet, some have signed on, and they are being told that will be given the dole for 13 weeks and after that they are on their own”.
“There are four businesses up there that actually owned their own premises and now they are going to have to claim off their own insurance for a fire that didn’t have anything to do with them.
“What those businesses need is cash,” she explained.
“The longer it goes on the less likely it is they are going to survive. The need an immediate injection, processes that are sped up, and I totally agree with Cllr [Donal] Barry when he said that the money is a drop in the ocean.
“You’d know it wasn’t an election year, or in the cities of Cork or Dublin, because €750,000 is just not going to cut the mustard.”
In reply to this acting Director of Services, Ned Brennan, said Waterford Council would pay the first part of the money themselves to speed up the support process.
“Under the memorandum of agreement received from the government, the Council have agreed to take on the responsibility of paying out the first €5,000 from our own resources immediately, as soon as the assessment process has commenced,” he explained.
“One of the other conditions in the memorandum of understanding is that we appoint a loss assessor to carry out an assessment of the losses that were experienced by each of the tenants of Tycor. We are talking to various government bodies in relation to the appointment of loss assessors at the moment,” he said.
“I expect that the first payment authorised by the department would start to flow next week,” Mr. Brennan added.
AARON KENT
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
