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Il a expliqué qu'il n'y avait pas eu de dégâts.

Il a expliqué qu'il n'y avait pas eu de dégâts.
He explained that there had been no damage.
From Lesson 182:Reported speech: past to pluperfect·French

Questions & Answers about Il a expliqué qu'il n'y avait pas eu de dégâts.

Why is the second verb in the plus-que-parfait (avait eu) instead of the passé composé?
This is the sequence of tenses in reported speech. The original direct quote was likely in the passé composé: Il n'y a pas eu de dégâts (There was no damage). Because the reporting verb a expliqué is in the past, the reported verb takes a step further back into the past, shifting from the passé composé to the plus-que-parfait (avait eu).
How does the il y a (there is) structure work in the plus-que-parfait here?
The plus-que-parfait is formed with a helping verb in the imperfect tense plus a past participle. For il y a, the main verb is avoir. So, you take the imperfect of avoir (il y avait) and add the past participle of avoir (eu). This gives you il y avait eu (there had been).
Where exactly do the negative words ne and pas go in this long phrase?
In compound tenses, ne and pas hug the conjugated helping verb. Here, the helping verb is avait, and the pronoun y must stay glued to the front of it. So the negation wraps around that whole block, giving us n'y avait pas, while the past participle eu sits outside the sandwich at the very end.
Why is it de dégâts instead of des dégâts?
This is because of the negation. If the sentence were positive, you would use the plural indefinite article des, making it il y avait eu des dégâts (there had been damage). When a sentence becomes negative, the articles un, une, and des change to de or d'.
Dégâts is plural here, but the English translation says damage in the singular. Is it always plural in French?
Usually, yes. When talking about physical damage or destruction caused by an event like a storm or an accident, French uses the plural les dégâts or des dégâts. English treats damage as an uncountable singular noun, but you have to use the plural in French.

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