Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
635. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when the recently announced funding will be with the relevant local authorities to allow for repair and reinstatement of infrastructure damaged by the storm and high tides in January; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13952/14]
View answerFollowing consideration of a report from me on the severe weather that affected Ireland in the period from mid-December 2013 to 6 January 2014, the Government decided on 11 February that a sum of up to €70 million will be made available for a programme of repair and remediation works. €62 million of this will be for local authorities in the areas worst affected by severe weather to help affected communities by restoring roads, coastal protection and other amenities, facilities and infrastructure, including piers and harbours. The Government decision was based on estimates provided by local authorities. Requests for funding of new works to protect coastal areas have been referred to the Office for Public Works and are not covered by the Government decision of 11 February 2014.
The Report on the Severe Weather from 13 December 2013 to 6 January 2014 contains details of estimates of the cost of damage caused on a county by county basis and has been published on my Department’s website www.environ.ie.
The arrangements for the drawing down of the funds by local authorities on foot of the Government decision were finalised following discussions between local authorities, my Department, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Office of Public Works, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
Local authorities have been notified of the sums being made available to them and have been requested to prioritise works which are significant for economic activity, with particular regard to the forthcoming tourist season.
Each local authority has been requested to prepare and submit directly to the relevant funding Departments/Agencies a programme of works for the projects identified, showing the indicative timescales and drawdown profiles. Local authorities have been informed that there will be a degree of flexibility available for prioritising projects to include works necessary as a result of more recent storms within the sub-headings of the overall funding envelope, pending preparation of a more comprehensive assessment of the impacts of these recent storms. The flexibility in prioritising projects indicated above is permissible within individual programmes (e.g. roads) and not across the various programmes.
In addition to the above funding arrangement, once-off allocations are being made to relevant local authorities to recoup the costs associated with the response to the storms during the period from 13 December 2013 to 6 January 2014. This includes the costs of response, clean-up works and necessary immediate works which were undertaken in the aftermath of the storms. This allocation will be drawn down from my Department on provision of appropriate documentation.
Further considerable damage has been caused by flooding and storm events that have occurred since 27 January. Details on damage caused and estimated repair costs in relation to these more recent events are currently being assessed.
