Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It would be nice to get the figures and data regarding the actual spend by the OPW. I would like to compliment the OPW on the fantastic quality of the work it has done in Mallow and Fermoy. It is working. I wonder whether the insurance industry is reflecting that level of work by reducing the premiums it is looking for from people in Mallow and Fermoy. I must have a word with some of the business people there to check whether they have seen 50% reductions in their premiums. I doubt that they have. I disliked the comment that a sinking fund is "simplistic". I suggest it is simplistic to refuse someone insurance. It is pretty digital - it is either zero or one. I just dislike it. We need a solution. As I said at a previous meeting, when Cork flooded a number of years ago, everybody ran for cover and nobody claimed their share of the responsibility.

We all know the effects of that. It wiped out the library, a large section of the new anatomy and biosciences building in UCC and all of its computer software. It did colossal damage, yet very few people spoke. The system seems to be segmented. Everybody has a responsibility, but it is someone else's problem. There needs to be a co-ordinating body that will come together and act, because it appears to be the weakest link. If something is not in place we will have an event.

I would not put it all down to climate change. I farm and I am as familiar with the climate as most people here. While we have had fluctuations, they are not as dramatic as some people would like to say. Putting everything down to climate change is a nice way to evade the situation. We need a solution for businesses and homeowners. I am glad the issue is being discussed. We discuss something when there is an event and then everybody goes away. The one, two or three people who look for insurance in a particular village or town, such as mine, Killavullen, are very minor stakeholders and their voices are not heard.

For a while the OPW was the lightening conductor when the maps came out, but I take the point that that was just a scoping exercise and it was working towards a goal. It was unfair of the insurance industry to come in at the time. Do the witnesses have any suggestions on co-ordinating local authorities, insurers and the OPW to get a co-ordinated and practical approach to dealing with the issue? The problem will continue, as they know. The situation in Cork was kicked from Billy to Jack and the current issue seems to have been kicked around like a football. It is not possible for every party here to act as an uninterested party. There is a responsibility on them to sort this out. Do the witnesses have any suggestions for how we could put together a forum that would develop workable solutions? I know there are no perfect solutions.