This Thursday, the Government made available an amount of 300 euros for both the municipality of Tavira and São Brás de Alportel to provide "an immediate response" to the most pressing needs for housing, following the fire that destroyed a vast area of these two Algarve counties.
Secretary of State for Solidarity and Social Security Marco António Costa announced to journalists, at the end of a meeting with the presidents of the two municipalities, which was attended by three other members of the Government, who signed "an order, in the presence of the mayors" for the celebration of two Local Development Contracts, to the value of «300 thousand euros for each municipality».
According to Marco António Costa, the four secretaries of State who were in Faro e who had already participated in a meeting that took place on Tuesday in Lisbon, brought with them «concrete solutions» in all the areas that concerned Jorge Botelho and António Eusébio, namely for intervention in the «forestry, agricultural, but above all, social support» sectors.
The two contracts contained in the order already signed are intended to deal with the most critical situations and will serve "basically for the recovery of damaged homes". The fund will be managed "by each of the chambers, together with Social Security".
In addition to this urgent availability of funds, other measures are on the table, but Marco António Costa did not say what funds will be allocated to them. «Next week I will come back here to Faro to talk to the mayors again, to learn more about the situation on the ground," he added, assuring that "the process started today", but it will continue to have developments.
At the end of the meeting, both mayors were satisfied with the measures, in general, in the sense that they open up a range of possibilities for responding to the problems they presented at the beginning of the week to the inter-ministerial commission that was created to support the victims of the fires.
As for the amount already made available, which at least in the case of São Brás de Alportel is well below the 1,5 million euros in damages for buildings alone, the agreement provides "that the amount may increase, if necessary."
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