Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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276. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the requests received by his Department from a county council (details supplied) for funding due to extreme weather events; the funding sought and the works proposed; when the application was submitted; the decision made on the request; the funding allocation made in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20222/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Since 2009, my Department has made financial support available to assist local authorities in meeting the costs of clean-up and necessary immediate works associated with the response to significant severe weather emergency events. This is in recognition of the exceptional nature of the activities carried out by local authorities in responding to these types of emergencies and the fact that the costs of these un-programmed activities cannot be met from within existing resources.

Requests for recoupment of these costs have been received from Mayo County Council in each of the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and are in respect of a series of severe weather events that affected Mayo (and other parts of the country). The amounts claimed and the amounts recouped are set out in the table below. A claim for recoupment of response and clean-up costs relating to the recent severe cold weather and snow has been sought from Mayo County Council and is awaited.

Following the severe storms of winter 2013/2014 and the resulting widespread damage to public infrastructure particularly in Atlantic coastal counties, the Government decided to make funding of up to €69.5m available to local authorities to assist them in supporting communities affected by restoring roads, coastal protection, and other amenities/facilities that had been damaged. It was agreed that the funding would be made available via the Votes of the appropriate Departments, i.e. Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport; Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine; the Office of Public Works and my own Department.  While my Department 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 other Departments and Offices listed above liaised directly with the local authorities on funding falling under their remit.

In the case of funding requirements relating to this event which fell under the remit of my Department, which included certain tourism infrastructure funded by the local authorities and certain piers, harbours and other facilities in the charge of the local authorities, a total of €784,000 was sought by Mayo County Council with €189,000 recouped in 2014 and  €594,100 recouped in 2015.

It was a matter for individual local authorities to decide which projects were to be progressed and in which timescales with priority being given to works that were significant for economic activity and to support the tourism industry in particular.

Mayo County Council