79. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the funding that has been approved to date to the Office of Public Works for the purposes of coastal protection works in Galway city and county; the projects approved for such funding in Galway city and county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14556/14]

Under its Minor Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme the Office of Public Works (OPW) has approved to date two coastal protection applications for Galway County Council totalling €363,600 as detailed in the following table. No coastal protection applications for Galway City Council have been received.

Galway County Council

The Government decided on 11 February 2014 to make available up to €69.5 million for a programme of repair and remediation works to roads, coastal protection and flood defence and other public infrastructure damaged in the storms from 13 December 2013 to 6th January 2014 based on estimates provided by the local authorities concerned. Of the total amount being made available, up to €19.6 million is available via the OPW for the repair of damaged coastal protection and flood defence infrastructure.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has written to Galway City Council and Galway County Council indicating, based on the estimate submitted by the Councils to that Department, that up to €105,000 is being made available to Galway City Council and €1,144,800 to Galway County Council via the OPW to undertake the necessary repair works to damaged coastal protection and flood defence infrastructure.

The Councils must submit overall programmes of works to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government detailing how they propose to spend the total allocation that is being made available to them. They must also submit the relevant elements of their programmes to each Department from whom funding will be made available for consideration of technical aspects of the proposed works. When the Councils' programmes of coastal protection and flood defence projects are received by the OPW they will be reviewed having regard to related guidance issued by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to the local authorities. The OPW has written to the local authorities indicating that in order to assist them in a practical way and to avoid any potential cash-flow issues, it will consider requests for advance funding of up to 80% of the estimated cost of approved projects where a contract for works has been made.