Mr. Michael Kemp:

We do not have detailed information on how the relationship is managed in other countries but systems work very differently in countries on the Continent where there is limited penetration of private insurance and collective or state backed funds are used to insure against flood risk.

It certainly is one reason the process takes so long in Ireland and, although there are projects which have been vetted and approved for the OPW to implement with a reasonable amount of resources, it takes a considerable length of time to get through the stages. In many cases it requires between six and ten years to get from design stage to execution. We would like to see that speeded up. One way of achieving this objective is to bring together all interests in a body subject to a certain degree of control in respect of the time it takes to discuss the issues arising and reach a conclusion.