Costs incurred from Storm Éowyn still not recouped

Roscommon County Council has still not been recompensed by central government for the almost €1.1 million it spent for clearing up the damage caused by Storm Éowyn.

At last week’s budget meeting of the council, the money spent by the local authority responding to the storm was brought up by a number of councillors.

Director of finance Sean Mullarkey said that the claim for approximately €1.1 million had been made and “we are still awaiting the outcome of that”.

He added that it was “a bit of a sore point” as the storm was in January “and we’re here in November and we are still waiting”.

When contacted, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing said that the response and humanitarian assistance activities carried out by local authorities during and after Storm Éowyn were exceptional in nature.

“Inevitably, these activities involved unforeseen costs that were not budgeted for within existing local authority resources,” the spokesperson said.

“The Department has collated response costs from all local authorities and is working with those local authorities – in consultation with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation – to address relevant unbudgeted costs.”