Insurance companies are being warned not to use the Government’s humanitarian fund to avoid paying out compensation to flood victims.

An initial ten million euro has been allocated by the State to help those people whose homes have been badly damaged in recent days.

Meanwhile the ESB says it will not be increasing the rate of release of water from Parteen Weir in the midwest today.

One woman’s home on O’Connell Terrace was under a foot and a half of water.

“It stayed in so long this time – it was 26 hours in the house” Annette O’Donnell said.

Houses here have flooded eight times in thirteen years, but this was one of the worst.

The concrete floor in her house had disintigrated.

Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin visited this area today, to assess how her department is dealing with the affected community.

She didn’t rule out increasing the €10 million already announced for humanitarian aid.

“Unfortunately humanitarian assistance cannot be compensation, and we certainly don’t want the insurance companies to walk away from their responsibilities” she said.

“But it will be there to try and help people” she added.

But the Minister also warned that the Government didn’t have a “bottomless pit” for such funding.