The Government has announced an additional €15 million in contingency funding for local authorities to cover exceptional costs associated with the extreme weather currently being experienced.
The cold weather is already breaking records. It has been almost forty years since Ireland has had snow and ice so early in the Winter and it is unusual for the cold weather to persist so intensly without respite.
“We do recognise that even with the best pre-planning, the intensity and duration of the weather is stretching the financial resources of local authorities in their response measures,” says John Gormley, TD, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. “I am pleased to be able to say that I will make €15m available from within my Vote for those local authorities most in need of supplementary funding, as a contribution to their exceptional costs, over and above the costs they would ordinarily be expected to meet in the context of yearly Winter weather demands.”