Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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18. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the total amount of funding approved for works by his Department arising out of the storms last January; the amount claimed to date by local authorities; the amount expended to date by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42022/14]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Government Decision of 11 February 2014 allocated total funding of up to €69.5 million for clean-up, repair and restoration works in relation to public infrastructure that was damaged in the period 13 December 2013 to 6 January 2014. Of this sum of €69.5 million, up to €19.6 million was allocated for repair of existing coastal protection and flood defences based on submissions and cost estimates made by the local authorities concerned to the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DoECLG). This funding for repair of damaged coastal protection and flood defence infrastructure is being made available to the local authorities via the Office of Public Works (OPW) based on programmes of works submitted by the local authorities. The Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Transport, Tourism and Sport and Agriculture, Food and the Marine are responsible for the approval of programmes of work and the disbursement of funding for repair of other damaged public infrastructure such as roads, piers, harbours and other community facilities and amenities.

In addition to the €19.6m funding for local authorities, an amount of €1.2m was also allocated under the Government Decision for repair of damage to OPW's own coastal protection and flood defence infrastructure.

Based on the programmes of works of repairs to coastal protection and flood defence infrastructure that were submitted by local authorities, total funding of €19.0 million was approved by the OPW for 176 projects that were deemed to be within the scope of the works covered by the Government Decision. The prioritisation and progression of projects is entirely a matter for the local authorities concerned.

To date, local authorities have submitted claims for drawn down of funding of €1.639 million in respect of projects that have been completed, are under construction, or where contracts for the works have been placed. The OPW has paid a total of €385,000 to date to the local authorities in respect of those claims. The balance of claims are being processed by the OPW and will be paid very shortly. The local authorities have indicated to the OPW that further substantial drawn down applications will be submitted by them before the end of this year.

Information on the drawn down of funding by the local authorities in respect of the storm damage allocations is provided on the OPW website . This information is updated on a monthly basis.