Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If I was a member and I was in the pot of €163.5 million, I would say "I have a good idea - the fire brigades are getting slower to the house fires so we will put up the premiums". It is not a concern that people are going to get burnt inside the house. It is a case of "if we put up the premium, that increases our profit". Do the witnesses know what I mean? It seems to be excuses and risks but at some stage we are going to have to park it and be realistic and say we can only do so much. If the insurers came back and said they were out, they cannot touch thatched houses and are not going to touch them any more, never again, then we could look at the European stuff for a solution but because there is the threat of a possibility that things could be done very differently. I would personally love to see a State-run insurance policy, paid to the people, by the people, for the people. Even if after running costs there was a profit, the profit would go back into the Exchequer. It may not be doable but at least you would be able to cover what you are supposed to cover. The fear we have here is that we have no answer for those people in thatched homes and businesses today and we are not going to have one maybe until next year. We are not going to get an answer. I am only getting frustrated. It is not a personal attack on any of the witnesses. It is just me getting frustrated because I cannot get an answer for the people who want it.