Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 October 2020
600. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount allocated to each local authority for each of the years 2000 to 2019 and to date in 2020, for investment in piers and harbours in tabular form; and the details of the allocations. [30302/20]
View answerMy Department owns, operates and maintains six designated State-owned Fishery Harbour Centres, located at Castletownbere, Dingle, Dunmore East, Howth, Killybegs and Ros An Mhíl under statute. In addition, my Department also has responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of North Harbour at Cape Clear, as well as the maintenance of a small number of specific piers, lights and beacons throughout Ireland, in accordance with the Marine Works (Ireland) Act 1902, and piers, lights and beacons constructed under the auspices of the Congested Districts Board.
Responsibility for the maintenance and development of Local Authority-owned harbours and piers rests with each individual Local Authority in the first instance and its parent Department, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage thereafter.
My Department does however provide limited funding to assist coastal Local Authorities in carrying out small scale projects for the development and repair of Local Authority owned piers, harbours and slipways under the annual Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme, subject to available Exchequer funding and overall national priorities.
Each year, Local Authorities are invited to submit prioritised lists of projects for consideration to be included in the annual capital programme. All applications for funding made by Local Authorities in respect of qualifying projects are then assessed, taking into account compliance with the criteria of the scheme, the priority attached to each project by the relevant Local Authority, the funding available, and the need to ensure a broad geographical spread of projects. Since 2010, my Department has provided funding of over €31 million to 15 coastal local authorities for development and maintenance works.
Table 1 (contained in the below link) outlines the total funding granted by my Department to each Local Authority in the years 2010 to 2020. The figures also include Storm Damage funding in 2014 and 2015, which was additional funding to assist Local Authorities in repairing piers and harbours and eligible marine infrastructure owned by them, which were damaged by severe winter storms.
Table1. LA Expenditure Totals 2010 to 2020
Table 2 (contained in the below link) gives a detailed project breakdown of this funding by Local Authority. The figures for 2020 are the allocated funding figures, not actual expenditure. My officials are currently reviewing records for the period 2000-2010, which pre-dates the current format of the Local Authority scheme, and my Department will revert to you in due course with details of funding allocated to Local Authorities during this period.
