Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The €65 million figure is the assessment by local authorities of the cost of the damage. This is an initial assessment which the Government obtained two weeks ago. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the lead Department, subsequently asked the local authorities to provide a clearer indication of what they might need, Department by Department. The OPW is one of the players in this matter, with the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Social Protection and Agriculture, Food and the Marine. We aim to get a fuller picture of the scale of damage in respect of the €65 million figure.

In respect of flooding, we have responsibility for a capital allocation of €45 million for major and minor schemes. My officials have written to local authority managers to provide more flexible arrangements for the minor works scheme. We have also given a commitment that we will prioritise applications from the worst affected counties. I visited County Clare last week to inspect works being carried out by the local authority. We are telling the local authorities to get on with the work and that we will recoup the money they spend afterwards in order to avoid bureaucratic slowness in getting money to the front line. To be frank, we will need more money and I indicated as much when I saw the severity of the storm damage. We will only be able to assess how much more we need once we have accurate information from the local authorities. It was encouraging to see that work had already started in County Clare when I visited last week. The priority is to repair flood defences that have been breached in case they are struck by further storms in the near future.

I have replied to the Deputy's questions on flood insurance on a number of occasions. I have prioritised this issue and hope to be in a position shortly to put before members a new memorandum of understanding between us and the Irish Insurance Federation, with which we have been in dialogue for the guts of one and a half years. I regret that it has taken so long to agree the memorandum which will represent an agreement between us and the federation based on where we determine capital should be invested and whether we achieve the 100 year standard. The 100 year standard is the basis on which insurers will reinsure communities. In the area to which the Deputy referred, there is no reason insurance should not be forthcoming. We have invested heavily in the area which managed to withstand the most recent storms. It is an example to the insurance industry of where the State has made the necessary investment and insurers should continue to reinsure people living there. I hope we will get the memorandum over the line at the earliest opportunity. It is not for the lack of trying that it has not yet been agreed. If we do get it over the line, it will represent a clear exchange of information on what we have done and the standard of engineering we have brought to the table. The federation will have an assurance that the work we have done is of a type that will allow it to offer insurance.