Mr. Paul Kavanagh:

I agree with the Deputy's interpretation. Meetings did not even take place until the flood forum started to rattle the cage a bit. I asked on several occasions who were the individual representatives of the insurance companies, to be told off the record that he or she was gone and there was nobody at the time. Where this information was going and how high up the line it was going is very questionable. The memorandum has no teeth whatsoever. It does not force anybody and is only a sharing of information. The OPW needs to push harder from its side and the Minister needs to push harder. To give an example, slide 11 from our presentation shows a map of the town of Fermoy. The slide has red lines, the area within which we identified as the red zone, or the blacklisted zone. If one found the geocoding maps, and if one was able to get them, they would vary as to the parts of the map covered, but none would give cover within the red lines. They all vary. The CFRAM map is more detailed and needs to be forced into geocoding. One of the flaws is that the OPW still considers this section of Fermoy to be flood A rated, which means Cork County Council still sees Fermoy as being flood A rated, which means a house or a development with an apartment cannot be built within the zone. Planning permission will not be obtained without really pushing the boundaries. There needs to be a big push on the back of this, which is why we welcome the Bill in an effort to move this on.