Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The discussions with the European Investment Bank relate to capital works so the funding would be mainly for flood defences. As the Deputy knows, the European Investment Bank is already assisting us with some of the capital programme, for example, some of the education and transport projects that are under way.

We are in discussions with the European Investment Bank to determine if we can make the capital works that are associated with flood defences amenable to EIB funding. The Deputy mentioned his assessment of how far the €250 million that we have committed to will go in terms of dealing with flood defences. We are conscious of that and, therefore, are considering ways in which the EIB can assist us. That is on the capital side.

The EU Solidarity Fund operates on the basis of a percentage of GDP. For this reason, we estimate that we would need to have suffered damage amounting to €700 million to qualify. The fund was established on a Europe-wide basis, but we are trying to determine whether it can be broken down on a regional basis. Weather impacts vary from region to region, in which case the threshold might be lower for those of us in this part of Europe. This is one of our discussions on the matter. As with any issue such as this, we are trying to determine how we can maximise draw-down from the EU programme. It seems that we would probably qualify for little, if anything, from the Solidarity Fund as it is currently constituted. Therefore, we are likely to bear the cost ourselves. However, we are in discussions on how the fund might be adjusted on a regional basis to enable us to qualify for funding.

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