John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State spoke earlier about the other question of insurance. It is the River Nore flood relief scheme, which had its issues with cost but which was a fantastic scheme to watch being delivered. The trucks were going up and down the bed of the river, etc. It was a great engineering achievement.

Downriver the OPW facilitated some properties by granting them funds to prepare their own flood relief in terms of the impact of the major works that were carried out at the city. In recent flooding, those works were washed away. Businesses were destroyed to the point where they had to be started again from scratch. I refer to Brett sawmills in Kilkenny which has been there for 100 years. It was so badly affected it is now hugely difficult to rebuild it because there is no insurance. I am merely asking what, if anything, the OPW can do to assist in that business because of the flooding.