Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill has called on the UK Government to arrange financial support for businesses in Northern Ireland devastated by recent flooding.DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and MLAs from the other Stormont parties joined calls for more funding from Westminster to enable businesses to return to trading.Ms O'Neill visited Downpatrick, where businesses were beginning the clean-up operation after some were nearly entirely submerged in water for days.Areas of counties Down

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill has called on the UK Government to arrange financial support for businesses in Northern Ireland devastated by recent flooding.DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and MLAs from the other Stormont parties joined calls for more funding from Westminster to enable businesses to return to trading.Ms O'Neill visited Downpatrick, where businesses were beginning the clean-up operation after some were nearly entirely submerged in water for days.Areas of counties Down, Antrim and Armagh suffered flooding after heavy rain fell last week.Work continued across the weekend in Downpatrick to pump the floodwater out of the town.The collapse of the Stormont Assembly has left senior civil servants leading government departments with limited powers.Ms O'Neill said the business community in Downpatrick was "absolutely traumatised and devastated" by the flooding.