Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State. It is always a pleasure to have him here. On the weekend of 3 January to 5 January 2014, the country experienced terrible weather conditions. The west coast of Clare was absolutely hammered on the morning of Friday, 3 January 2014. Millions of euro worth of damage was caused at the time and Ministers and others visited, including the then Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Mr. Brian Hayes. Homes and businesses were destroyed and serious damage was done to the streetscape in towns along the coast, particularly Lahinch. Subsequently, the Government committed €17 million to deal with the issues in Lahinch and in other parts of County Clare. To be fair to the local authority, it has done a phenomenal job. As a matter of fact, the promenade in Lahinch and the streetscape along it is of a higher quality now than what it was prior to the storm damage in 2014. It is absolutely fantastic and I encourage anyone in the area to visit the town. The reason I am highlighting the matter today, however, is that there has been a shortfall of €1.6 million from the Government for the work in Lahinch. Clare County Council has completed the work and paid for it but I understand that it is being told by the Department that the sum of €1.6 million will not be available. Is that the case? Will the shortfall be paid? If so, when? If not, why?

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. The Government decided on 11 February 2014 to allocate funding of up to €69.5 million to local authorities in the areas worst affected by the severe weather of December 2013 and January 2014 in order to support the restoration of public infrastructure which had been damaged. It was agreed that the funding would be made available via the Votes of the appropriate Departments and offices. These were: for the repair of roads, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: for piers and harbours other than those in the charge of local authorities, the Department of Agriculture, Food arid Marine; for coastal protection and repairs, the Office of Public Works, OPW; for tourism-related infrastructure as well as certain piers, harbours and other facilities in the charge of local authorities, what has become the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.

While the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government had an initial role in collating details and costs of damage in the immediate aftermath of the severe weather based on returns and estimates provided by local authorities, the aforementioned Departments and offices liaised directly with the local authorities regarding funding falling within their remit. In the case of Clare County Council, the Department of Housing, Planning arid Local Government, in its initial co-ordinating role, wrote to the council in February 2014 advising that a sum of up to €16.21 million was available to the council for the repair of damaged public infrastructure. This was broken down across relevant Departments and offices. The funding was based on the initial estimates of repairs submitted by Clare County Council. In these initial estimates, the council included a request for repairs in respect of damage caused totalling €1.64 million under the heading of other facilities. When more detailed claims for recoupment were received from the council in December 2015, this request was further clarified to be for repair to damage of various seawalls. In January 2016, Clare County Council was advised by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government that it should refer its claim for funding of these works to the OPW as the works related to repair of coastal protection infrastructure and were deemed ineligible for funding from the Department, which has no role in this regard.

Clare County Council has recouped a total of €3.92 million in capital expenditure from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government for infrastructure damage arising from the 2013-2014 storms and has been advised on a number of occasions that funding is not available from the Department for coastal protection repairs. A further notification will issue to Clare County Council confirming that position is still the case.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I know the Minister of State is delivering a script and I thank him for it but, ultimately, someone has to pay for this. It appears to be a typical Civil Service scenario of one Department blaming another. One Department is abdicating responsibility to another and the other Department is not living up to its responsibilities. Someone has to pay and someone has to state definitively who is responsible. With the Cathaoirleach's indulgence, I will now give notice of the same matter for a response from the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW and we will see what we get back. There was a shortfall of €1.6 million and someone has to meet it. Those who are suffering as a result of this are the people of County Clare. If Clare County Council is €1.6 million short in funding, it has to come from somewhere and that will have a knock-on effect on services in County Clare. I thank the Minister of State sincerely for coming to the House but I will have to disturb the House and give notice of the matter again next week to see if I can get to the bottom of this.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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When the works were assessed, it was clear which Departments and offices were to be engaged and the Votes involved and, from the outset, it was clear that the OPW was responsible for coastal protection repairs. I think it might be advisable for the Senator-----

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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To be fair, the Department with responsibility for the environment was appointed the lead Department at the time.