Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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424. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the specific funding streams available to local authorities to apply for; the amount that has been given by county; the amount awarded under each scheme in each of the years 2018 to 2020 and to date in 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4051/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Defence does not provide specific funding streams to Local Authorities as such outside of the funding made available for Civil Defence from within the Defence Vote.

Civil Defence funding includes operational and discretionary grants payable to Local Authorities for the provision of Civil Defence services. Operational grants cover 70% of the running costs of Civil Defence annually with Local Authorities providing the remainder. Payment of the full grant is dependent on returns from Local Authorities confirming they have met the required 30% level of Civil Defence expenditure for the previous year. These grants are based on criteria set out in legislation and include a basic grant plus additional allowances based on area, population and employment of Civil Defence Officers. On application, other grants are also issued to the Local Authorities from time to time towards the purchase of vehicles and equipment and other miscellaneous costs incurred by Civil Defence Units. Payment of these additional grants is dependent on submission of Local Authority plans for Civil Defence under the 2012 Civil Defence Act. The current 3 year Local Authority Civil Defence plans cover the period 2020 to 2022.

My Department applied for and received funding from the Dormant Accounts Fund in 2019 (€0.5 million) and 2020 (€1 million) to go towards the upgrading of the Civil Defence fleet of vehicles. This funding was used to provide new vehicles in Local Authority Civil Defence Units across the country. A further €1 million has been allocated from Dormant Accounts Fund for 2021 to further upgrade the fleet.

The total operational and other grants, including Dormant Accounts funding, paid to individual Local Authorities from the Defence Vote by Civil Defence from 2018 to 2020 are outlined in the table below.

Detail on 2021 funding will be available later this year.