Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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548. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amounts submitted to his Department as estimates for flood damage from the recent floods, by local authority. [4419/16]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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My Department is responsible for the response phase only of severe weather related emergencies including flooding. As part of the response related activities undertaken in relation to the recent flooding, my Department wrote to the Local Authorities and asked them to submit details of the exceptional costs they incurred in the response, clean-up and necessary immediate works. As part of this exercise estimates of the costs of damage to public infrastructure were also requested. The damage reported was principally to the roads network and details were passed to the responsible Departments (see Table 1 below).

My Department is not compiling any further details in this regard as most of the public infrastructure damaged falls outside the remit of my Department. The compilation of further data on flooding damage and the associated funding arrangements for restoration works on roads and other infrastructure is a matter for the relevant Government Departments or Agencies to administer, in consultation with Local Authorities, as appropriate.

My Department made available to Local Authorities two tranches of additional funding totalling €18 million to support them in meeting the costs associated with the flood preparedness, response and clean-up activities arising from the recent flooding. This funding was provided to Local Authorities in acknowledgement of the exceptional nature of the work undertaken in protecting homes and property from flooding and in the post-flooding clean-up works.

To date, my Department has made payments to local authorities totalling €6.354 million to assist them in meeting the costs of the response, clean-up and necessary immediate works related to the flooding that occurred up to 19 December 2015 (see Table 2 below). My Department recently wrote to local authorities inviting them to submit claims for recoupment of costs from 19 December to date.

Table 1

Local Authority Infrastructure Damage Estimates 5 Dec 2015 to 4 Jan 2016

Table 2

DECLG Payments to Local Authoritiesfor Response Phase