Clarity needed for councils on storm damage costs

Local authorities need assurances that clean-up costs from major weather events will be reimbursed by central government, councillors have said.

At a recent meeting of the Roscommon Municipal District, councillors again expressed concern about the length of time it took for the council to be reimbursed from the Department of Local Government following Storm Éowyn in January 2025. The MD wrote to the department about the issue of reimbursement last October, and the response from Minister Browne’s office was read out at the meeting.

It said that the department had provided a total of €174.9 million between 2022 to 2025 to Roscommon County Council and that councils were the lead authorities to co-ordinate responses to flooding and severe weather events.

It continued that since 2009, the department has made more than €100 million available to assist councils meet the costs of weather events, such as for the hiring of machinery etc. It added that the department would continue to liaise with local authorities over these unbudgeted costs.

Cathaoirleach of the MD Paschal Fitzmaurice said Storm Éowyn was an unprecedented event and resulted in one of the biggest clean-ups ever carried out by the council.

“The staff here did brilliant work in response to the storm,” he said, but the council had been left unsure whether it would recoup the costs of the clean-up, more than €1 million.

“And it took a long time to get it,” he said, with the council reimbursed “the huge amount of money” in December.

“I met the Taoiseach in Castlerea a couple of days after the storm, and he made a clear commitment that the local authorities would be reimbursed. But the length of time it took cast a bit of doubt.” He said it would be positive to know that when storms do occur, a channel of additional funding was available.

Cllr Ruth Conboy said the letter was in response to a proposal she made in the budget meeting last year.

While she welcomed the reimbursement and praised the council’s response, she was concerned that currently councils had to cover costs from weather events.

“It has a critical impact on budgets if there’s a doubt that those costs will get reimbursed,” she said. In terms of preventing future storm damage, she highlighted that there were a lot of trees hanging very close to roads and asked that this be looked at.

Cllr Marty McDermott welcomed the reimbursement and praised the council’s staff response to the storm, but added clarity was needed. “It was an unprecedented storm but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen again.” 

Cllr Michael Holland also welcomed the reimbursement and praised the staff.

*Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.