Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
378. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform how much of the Civil Protection Humanitarian Aid is available to Ireland and how much has been drawn down to date by the State; how much has been distributed to victims of flooding to date; and how much of this fund has been drawn down in total by other countries. [48452/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraAt an EU level, matters related to Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid are the responsibility of the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) whose mandate is to provide emergency assistance and relief (in the form of goods and services) to victims of conflict and natural or man-made disasters outside the EU. Assistance is delivered in cooperation with and through a range of international organisations and NGO’s including in an Irish context: Concern Worldwide, Goal, Plan Ireland Charitable Assistance and Trocaire. The Department of Foreign Affairs also engages closely with the humanitarian directorate of the Commission in Brussels, which coordinates EU humanitarian aid operations, disaster risk management and civil protection response.
The civil protection mandate extends to disaster prevention and preparedness actions, response and post-crisis operations inside the EU and worldwide. When an emergency overwhelms the response capabilities of a country in Europe and beyond, it can request assistance through the Mechanism. The Commission plays a key role in coordinating the disaster response worldwide, contributing to at least 75% of the transport and/or operational costs of deployments. In 2022, the Mechanism was activated 106 times to respond to (i) war in Ukraine; (ii) wildfires in Europe; (iii) COVID-19 in Europe and worldwide; and (iv) floods in Pakistan.
The overall budget for this area is determined as part of the Multiannual Financial Framework and allocated as part of the annual EU Budget. While it is a spending line in the EU budget it is not an EU Fund, Member States do not receive any allocation nor do they have any involvement in the day to day management.
Separately, the 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 natural disaster is defined as one that results in damage in a Member State estimated either at over €3bn or more than 0.6% of GNI.
For major natural disasters, a progressive system in two steps is applied whereby a country affected by a major disaster receives a lower rate of aid of 2.5 % of total direct damage for the part of damage below the threshold and a higher share of aid of 6 % for the part of the damage exceeding the threshold.
An application may also be when the damage is below this national threshold. For these circumstances to apply a region must have suffered a natural disaster. The relevant EU Regulation sets out that a ‘regional natural disaster’ means any natural disaster resulting, in a region at NUTS level 2 of an eligible State, in direct damage in excess of 1.5 % of that region’s gross domestic product (GDP). Assistance from the Fund in these cases is at the rate of 2.5% of total direct damage.
To date, Ireland has drawn down €56.8m from the EUSF, €43.8m in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and €13m in respect of damage from flooding in 2009.
A Member State has twelve 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 consideration of the effects of recent severe weather.
Further information on matters related to Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid is available from the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) at civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/index_en
