Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 October 2014
109. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total funding approved by his Department this year for the repair of storm damage to piers and other similar works; the amount paid to date by his Department to reimburse local authorities for such work; if prepayment of funds to local authorities has taken place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39699/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department provides funding, where exchequer funds allow, for the development and repair of Local Authority owned piers and slipways under the Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme. On 20 March this year, as part of the Governments overall co-ordinated response to the damage caused by the winter storms, I approved a total of €8.5 million in funding for the repair of the public pier, harbour and slipway network linked to fisheries and aquaculture.
Funding of €7 million was approved for 111 projects to repair Local Authority owned storm damaged harbours, piers and slipways and €1.5 million for remediation work at four Department owned, non-Fishery Harbour Centres.
It is not possible at this stage to provide information on the amounts of funding expended, as the funding allocated is not drawn down by the local authorities until completion of the relevant works. Accordingly a definitive figure is relation to actual expenditure would not be available until close to year end.
As all projects are subject to pre and post-works inspections by this Department’s Engineers, pre-payment is not an option. Local Authorities are not reimbursed until the project is completed.
The following information was provided under Standing Order 40A
2014 Storm Damage Programme
On 20 March this year, as part of the Government's overall co-ordinated response to the damage caused by the winter storms, I approved €7 million in funding for Local Authority owned storm damaged harbours, piers and slipways.
The following conditions apply to projects approved under the once off 2014 Storm Damage Programme run by my Department.
- Funding by the Department to be at 90% of the qualifying expenditure for the year if less than the approved project cost.
- The works must be completed during 2014.
- Each project is subject to pre and post inspections by Department Engineers.
- Applications for payments of grant have to be accompanied by the necessary backup documentation.
- Claims must be submitted by the Local Authorities no later than 1 December 2014.
In order to expedite the submission of claim forms and thus the payment of claims my Department contacted all Local Authorities on the 25* September 2014 requesting submission of claim forms for any completed projects. This correspondence has thus far resulted in the submission of 12 claim forms totalling a grant amount of €509,012. However, the bulk of claims for the €7m approved projects would not normally be expected from the Local Authorities until closer to the 1 December deadline for the Local Authorities to submit their claims.
All projects are subject to post works inspections, payment of claims is also subject to receipt of the necessary back up documentation from the Local Authorities. This validation process is underway for the claims received, to date no payments have been made under this Programme. Payments will be processed without delay when local authorities submit claims and when inspections are completed.
