€70m Announced For Storm Damage

The Government has announced €70 million will be made available for a programme of repair and remediation works.

This will enable local authorities in the areas worst affected by the storms, including the most recent flooding, to help affected communities by restoring roads, coastal protection and other infrastructure and amenities. The €70m figure derives from estimates provided by local authorities and other agencies, broken down as follows:

€16 m for roads;

€20 m for restoring coastal protection infrastructure;

€26 m for local authority infrastructure, tourism, amenity and community infrastructure, and piers/harbours; and

€8 m for other transport and OPW infrastructure.

This is in addition to the €25m which Government has already announced for Department of Social Protection’s Humanitarian Assistance schemes.

Minister Phil Hogan, TD said: "The making available of this €70 m clearly demonstrates the Government's financial commitment to respond to the needs of communities which were devastated by the storms. It is based on the requests from local authorities and facilitates them in immediately beginning a programme of prioritised works to assist the communities and areas worst affected. It will also help many areas which rely on tourism to get back in business.

"I know there has been further damage in many areas from the most recent spell of storms and flooding. The important thing is that the local authorities and the communities they serve can be assured they can draw down the necessary funds from the three Departments involved in this programme. My Department and staff of the others involved will be meeting staff of the local authorities concerned to set out the working arrangements in consultation with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform."

Following discussions with the European Commission, the Government has also noted that the impact of the storms does not meet the threshold conditions for EU Solidarity Fund assistance. The thresholds for regional/exceptional applications are also very high and the EU budget has been reduced from €1 billion to €534 million per annum. The Commission has signalled that this will mean grants for successful applications being cut from 2.5% to about 1.33%. Essentially, for every €100 million of damage, the best we could hope for is €1.33 million assistance under this fund.

(CVS/CD)