I will raise the issue of flood damage to roads in County Wicklow caused by Storm Chandra. The recent floods caused severe damage to many rural roads. The council has costed the repairs needed at several million euro. Wicklow County Council has submitted a detailed report to the Department seeking emergency funding assistance to facilitate the timely delivery of the required remedial works and to ensure continued safety and serviceability of the county's road network. I have seen the extent of the damage. It is truly shocking. The roads budget does not cover one-off events like this so I ask that special consideration be given to supporting these repairs. This would represent a much-needed investment in the roads and would actually save money in the long term.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Bohernabreena Road opened yesterday, which was some help. We welcome that. The flooding as a result of Storm Chandra was quite shocking. As the Deputy will know, it has had a significant impact. The Minister sought submissions from all county councils in respect of the damage done to the roads. We announced various investments in February. Some €718 million for regional and local roads was announced. The Department is liaising with the affected counties, including Wicklow, which was significantly impacted. Approximately 300 local roads were damaged with over 50 left impassable across eight counties. Working with the local authorities, we will see what we can do to respond. Local authorities are advised to set aside a minimum of 10% of the grant given to them as a contingency to deal with severe weather events and damage to the network. We will follow up on that.