Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. As members commence the business of taking the Votes, I note no Opposition opening spokespersons are presenting and will move on to Vote 13, Office of Public Works. Are there comments or questions on programme A, flood risk assessment, subheads A1 and A2, administration, pay and non-pay? No. Are there comments or questions on subhead A3, plant and machinery or subhead A4, hydrometric and hydrological investigation and monitoring? No.

I have a question on subhead A5, flood risk management. A lot of money under that heading is going into many positive works. In my previous capacity as Chair of the Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht, I note the Minister of State appeared before it on foot of his relationship with the OPW and so on. I refer to a problem that both this sub-committee and certainly the aforementioned joint committee must consider. The issue is that the State is spending an incredible amount of money on flood remedial works, flood engineering works, flood improvements and so on. However, the difficulty is that areas of the country still are geocoded by the insurance industry as flood risks. Moreover, even after the OPW and the local authorities have carried out works in those areas, there is no recognition by insurance companies that such work has been done. In effect, some households cannot take out domestic home insurance at present. It is a problem for them at present and will be a problem in the future for them because such houses cannot be sold. While I acknowledge this issue does not come directly under the Minister of State's expenditure remit, I would like to see its resolution as an output, in that it should be one of the objectives. While the Estimates outline the bricks and mortar aspect of what is being done by the OPW, relief for the domestic owners does not appear to be an output therein, but I believe it should be.