Weather warnings: Much of Ireland braced for more rain as multiple ...

A status orange rain warning from Met Éireann is in place for Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny until 1am on Tuesday with much of the rest of the country covered by a status yellow rain warning for the early part of the week.

All told, there are 18 counties where yellow alerts are in place with only Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Kerry currently warning free, although they are unlikely to be free of rain over the hours ahead.

Rain will be widespread across Munster, Connacht and south Leinster this morning, turning heavy at times particularly across the southeast and midlands where flooding is possible.

Heavy rainfall has led to surface water and localised flooding throughout Waterford city and county and with significant rainfall expected in the next few hours, flooding incidences are expected to increase, authorities there have warned.

Waterford City and County Council’s ground crews have been deployed to deal with issues as they arise, such as localised flooding, blocked drains and gulley overflows, and it has advised the public to exercise caution as driving conditions may be hazardous, with further surface water flooding expected.

People in the areas of Cork which were badly hit by flooding in recent days have been told to be particularly vigilant by Cork County Council.

“Cork County Council is asking areas which were impacted by recent flood events to be conscious of the risk of possible future flooding,” the council said in a statement.

“Residents in flood-prone areas who have previously been issued with sandbags are advised to take all necessary precautions, considering the forecast.

“Although river levels have dropped over recent days, levels remain elevated. The advice is therefore for people to remain vigilant. Localised heavy downpours are expected, the exact location of which is unknown. It should be noted that surface water drainage systems have limited capacity and localised downpours and flash flooding may overwhelm drainage systems, even where they have been fully cleared. There is also a likelihood of surface water flooding on already saturated ground conditions,” the council statement said.

The rain will gradually spread further to the north and east this afternoon followed by a mix of cloud and isolated showers pushing in from the southwest with temperatures reaching between 10 and 14 degrees.

The rain will continue to affect the north and east of the country into Monday night with scattered showers elsewhere.

Tuesday will bring a mix of cloud and scattered showers but some dry spells at times too with the showers becoming more isolated during the afternoon with some sunny spells developing.

By the middle of the week, however, the rain will return, first to Munster before gradually spreading northeast across the country later on Wednesday with the possibility of heavy and thundery falls and spot flooding.

Thursday will be cloudy with scattered showers, some heavy in the west with the early indications for the weekend suggesting more unsettled weather with showers forecast for most counties, some possibly heavy at times too and temperatures likely to reach the low teens.

Elsewhere, the secretary general of the Irish Red Cross, which will administer the Government’s flood humanitarian fund, said the organisation has briefed the Government on what funds will be required to assist businesses impacted by the floods in east Cork last week following Storm Babet.

Deirdre Garvey told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland the Red Cross anticipated the Government would increase the volume of funds required, which could then be dispersed later this week.

“We have clarified exactly what the process will be. This is a process that we’ve used before. What we are waiting for is the absolute financial limits and any exceptional cases that are mentioned.

“So for businesses affected by this, there’s a very simple response and we make it easy for businesses. There’s one email address. It’s called [email protected]. As soon as that decision is made by Cabinet, we get the nod and the form with the details finalised, details will go up on our website. It’s a PDF document,” she said.

“Each business simply needs to download that form, fill in their particulars, including their tax status and other details about lack of insurance, for example, because it is a scheme that heretofore has been for those businesses, who through no fault of their own, have not been able to get insurance.

“They can gather the relevant normal information now and once they fill in that form and get it back to us, what we will do then is verify that very quickly with the local authority to make sure that this business with this name and this address is a verified business as per the local knowledge of the local authorities,” she said.

“Once that comes back to us, we will make that first payment, it could be €5,000, it could be €10,000. We’re going to await the figure for that first payment. So it is theoretically possible that we hear [the amount] on Tuesday from Cabinet ... it is quite possible that we can get those first payments out this week. There’s no real reason to prevent that.

“It’s the businesses just giving us the information, the local authority verifying that we’ll get those payments out.” Ms Garvey said,

She added the Red Cross is awaiting clarification from the Government on whether it wants them to run the existing scheme and the exceptional scheme in parallel, or whether they will be integrated in some way. The Red Cross system allows for both, she said.

The Red Cross scheme is for businesses, while householders have access to a scheme that is run and administered by the Department of Social Protection, explained Ms Garvey. “It is called the Humanitarian Assistance Program and there is a freephone number on the website there if people want to Google that. And I think Minister Humphreys has been very clear, that scheme is already open.”