I propose to take Questions Nos. 15, 28 and 31 together.
My Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had discussions with the European Commission on possible EU funding under the Solidarity and Regional Support schemes. The purpose of the EU Solidarity Fund is to allow Member States to request financial aid in the event of major natural disasters. There is a damage threshold per Member State which is set at 0.6% of GNI. The estimated costs of damage caused by the storms between 13 December 2013 and 6 January 2014 were €69.5 million. The estimated costs for subsequent damage caused by severe weather from 27 January to 17 February 2014 are currently being collated but indications are that they will not exceed the costs of the damage for the 13 December 2013 to 6 January 2014 period. These total estimated damage costs are well below the non-negotiable GNI threshold of 0.6% (€770 million in the case of Ireland) of the Solidarity Fund.
The possibility of a regional application has also been considered. Article 2 of the Council Regulation for the EU Solidarity Fund provides for such applications under exceptional circumstances. This is subject to a series of impact criteria, including one relating to more than 50% of population of a region being directly affected by a natural disaster. Taking Munster as an example for regional designation purposes, with a population of 1.254 million it would have to be demonstrated that at least 627,000 persons were directly affected. Therefore, the situations which have occurred do not appear to meet these criteria and no application for EU funding is being made.