Local authorities will have to be properly funded to deal with the fall out from the flooding crisis and the Department of the Environment should make an immediate statement on the matter.
Local authorities throughout the country have used funds to address flooding problems over the past couple of months and a lot of these funds were earmarked for other purposes. The Department of the Environment gave them the go ahead to do whatever was needed to address the flooding problems. But now the bills have to be paid and even more funding will be needed in the coming months to carry out works, especially to help people who have been cut off by the floods,
The councils have spent a lot of money in some cases and their budgets are very tight but the Department has made no announcement as to what each council is getting to address this problem. Roscommon and Galway county councils will need a huge amount of money to deal with flooding related problems. I am calling on the Department of the Environment to come out now and announce what funding that they are making available. The figures are done and every council have sent in estimates and this funding is needed immediately to fill the hole that is there in local authority finances and to address the problems that still exist as a result of the flooding crisis.
NB—— As a follow-on to the statement I issued earlier today, I welcome the announcement this evening that County Roscommon has received an allocation of 4.5 million Euro and County Galway an allocation of 6 million Euro to repair damaged roads caused by the recent flooding. Much work needs to be done in both counties so it remains to be seen if these monies will be enough and it is an issue that I will be keeping a close eye on over the next week and if I am elected next Friday it is an issue that I will be pursuing as a matter of urgency with the next Government.