Ms Clare McGrath:

Funding for flood risk management, including coastal protection, was not cut. Other parts of our allocation were cut, but there have been no cuts in our allocation for this work since 2008. Government has ensured that funding is in place to support this work.

I would say, and it is a policy question, that the legislation covering this area dates from 1963. I think there are things we can consider - and we want to move into that space - in regard to coastal protection. We are looking at 90 coastal areas as part of the CFRAM programme, and taking account of climate change. We will be dealing with some of the more populated areas, because they meet the criteria of the programme. In 2009, we introduced the minor flood risk and coastal protection scheme through which we are providing the funding to local authorities. I think the local authorities have an issue with their capacity to deal with that number. The local authorities had to deal with storms in January.