Cork County Council needs a further €4.25m for storm repairs

Another €4m-plus is needed by Cork County Council to fix storm damage on top of the €3.98m it has already received from the Government.

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan announced yesterday that various government departments had already allocated €3,980,000 to the council for “repair and restoration programmes” arising from the severe weather which hit the county between December and January 6. This was in addition to a one-off payment of €868,700 which was given to the council for clean-up work and necessary immediate repairs.

However, Cork County Council’s director of services Tom Stritch has said a further bill for €4,259,000 has been sent to the Government.

That bill is for weather damage over the last two months, most notably during the February 12 hurricane which wreaked havoc the length and breadth of the county.

“The main damage was inflicted on coastal areas prior to January 6, especially around the Beara peninsula and Sheep’s Head. But the most recent damage was all over the place and there was a lot of it inland,” Mr Stritch said.

TD Noel Harrington said West Cork will receive the bulk of the most recently delivered funding, which along with the further funding from the Office of the Public Works (OPW) and the county council itself, will “largely meet the estimated cost of repairing and restoring the untold damage caused by these storms to local infrastructure.”

“Funding of new coastal protection works has been separated and will be funded directly by the OPW. This announcement will be made in due course,” Mr Harrington said.

Mr Stritch said during the post-January 6 storms a number of roads collapsed and serious damage was caused to some bridges in the Kanturk and Youghal areas.

It is hoped the latest plea for funding would be granted by the Cabinet before the end of this month, enabling the council to carry out much-needed work on a number of projects.