Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 January 2014
127. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if in view of the scale of damage caused by recent storms he intends to apply to the EU for assistance; when an application will be lodged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2066/14]
View answerThe EU Solidarity Fund was established by the European Union to respond to major natural disasters within the Union and to express Union solidarity with disaster-stricken regions within Europe. For the purposes of the Fund, a major disaster is defined as damage in a Member State estimated either at over €3bn or more than 0.6% of GNI. In Ireland s case, this would amount to approximately €770 million.
An application may be made in exceptional circumstances when the damage is below this threshold. For these circumstances to apply a region must have suffered an extraordinary natural disaster affecting the major part of its population and there must have been serious and lasting repercussions on the living conditions and the economic viability of the region. Assistance from the Fund in these cases is at the rate of 2.5%. While two thirds of applications to the Fund are made on the basis of exceptional circumstances, most do not succeed. An additional factor is that the annual budget for the period 2014-2020 has been halved from €1 billion to €500 million per annum, and the Commission has indicated that future grants are likely to be 50% lower than previously.
A Member State has ten weeks after the first damage caused by the disaster to submit an application for assistance from the Fund.
Any Government decision on this matter will be made following a further report from the Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government on the recent severe weather.
