Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There has been quite a lot of storm damage and the Government does not yet know its extent. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is heading up the operation and will check to make sure the figures are accurate. The most badly affected roads were in County Clare, in which approximately €7.2 million worth of damage was done. It was followed by counties Waterford, Galway, Mayo, Kerry and Cork, in which damage to a figure of €3.8 million, €2.5 million, €2 million, €1.7 million and €2.5 million, respectively, was done. These are the current estimates. In addition, a lot of damage has been done to Irish Rail infrastructure. I refer, for example, to the roof of Kent Station in Cork. There are some issues in Waterford, where there was a landslide, as well as in Pearse Station, Dublin, where the roof was damaged again and needs to be replaced fully. There was some minor damage to the Irish Coast Guard coastal unit stations, as well as some damage to lighthouses and at Shannon Airport. However, as a commercial entity, that will have to be paid from the airport's own funds. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is putting all the information together and it is anticipated that it will then make a report to the Cabinet, after which the Government will either reallocate existing funds or make additional funds available which will then go to the local authorities in question to be divvied up.

On the local improvement scheme, LIS, I have decided to allow local authorities to use up to 15% of their discretionary grant for an LIS programme if they so wish. Both the discretionary grant and the percentage are up on last year. When LIS was a dedicated budget of its own, it was €5 million a year. This will be up to approximately €7 million.
It is really up to every local authority to decide whether or not it wants to do this. Most local authorities do not. They prefer to put the funding into public roads and say that laneways are a matter for the landowners. In other parts of the country, they take a different view and say that some of these laneways are de factopublic roads, maybe they are not taken in charge but they are used by many. This will allow local authorities to make that decision for themselves and that will be welcomed.
On the Rugby World Cup, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, and I met our counterparts in Armagh yesterday. We have set up a committee, involving the tourism agencies, North and South, Tourism Ireland, the three Departments and the IRFU, which will map out what will be required to make the bid. That report will go to the North-South Ministerial Council in the summer with a view to confirming what the bid will be. The committee will figure out the structure - whether it will be some sort of company that will make the bid, who will run and own the company, and what will be the divvy-up between North and South when it comes to the capital investment needed and funding any liability if there is one at the end of it. That is essentially what they will figure out. As far as I am concerned, it is full steam ahead.