Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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257. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of the minor works flood scheme review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34236/17]

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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I can inform the Deputy that on 7 July, I announced and welcomed the completion of the review of the Minor Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme which includes many improvements to the eligibility/benefit criteria of the Scheme.

The scheme provides funding to local authorities to carry out localised flood relief works.

My Office conducted this review, in consultation with stakeholders such as the local authorities, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the IFA. I am pleased to note that many of the concerns of these stakeholders were taken into account in the review. For example, the upper financial threshold has been increased substantially from €500,000 to €750,000 and benefit allowances have been updated to reflect different property types, with the inclusion of farm yard/buildings as commercial premises.

I am also delighted to confirm that the assessment of value of agricultural land has been updated using the Standard Farm Output Figure from the CSO Census of Agriculture 2013. This will provide more reliable data for each county on a regional basis for the calculation of benefit attached to agricultural land.

All local authorities have been notified of the revised criteria, which are effective for applications received after 1 June 2017. The revised criteria are available on www.opw.ie