Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the additional €70 million to address the problems caused by the recent storms. We have received reports from the south west today of considerable damage being caused. While any additional funding is welcome, we may need to examine the figures again. I understand that significant damage has been caused along the Kerry coastline and other parts of the south east.

A case for EU funding must be made at Government level. The previous Government received €13 million in respect of the 2009 flooding. At the levels being mentioned by the current Government, we would only get €1.33 million for our €100 million worth of damage. There is a strong case to be made. Two Ministers are present. If the Government has not already done so, will it make an argument for funding from Brussels? Is Ireland's European Commissioner, who came from the Fianna Fáil side of the House, taking the case to Europe for extra funding? Our State is small compared with the rest of Europe. We are out in the Atlantic and exposed to that ocean's storms. We are witnessing more extreme weather events than central Europe.

Given the level of damage caused to date, I appeal to senior Ministers, the Taoiseach, the Commissioner and our embassies to start lobbying as a special case for increased aid and for the criteria to be changed, given our coastal areas' exposure to Atlantic storms. The possibility of making regional cases should be explored. All parties are concerned by what is happening to communities along the coasts and in the midlands.

Local authorities have lost approximately 20% of their staff. Unfortunately, many of those were front-line staff, for example, engineers and others who carried out vital preventative and maintenance works. The reduction in staffing and funding levels in recent years has meant that routine maintenance work on roads, bridges, coastal defences and culverts has not been carried out. I want the two Ministers to take this matter seriously. There was flooding recently in the Knockmay area of Portlaoise because a culvert on Harper's Lane was not kept clear. It was a simple issue. There is a culvert across from where I live on the Clonrooske link road. I assure the House that a good eye is being kept on it, but if it was not kept clear, entire estates and hundreds of houses in Portlaoise would be flooded.

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