Mr. Kevin Thompson:

We have the relevant people, subject matter experts from our member companies, who sit at our side of the table. The OPW is there and we are actively exchanging information. The other concern which the Deputy raised was on getting people on the ground. To be fair to the insurers, they deploy loss assessors on the ground when they know to do so through a weather warning or whatever. Storm Ophelia was a case in point where the industry mobilised very effectively to make sure it had people on the ground to assess what was coming and ultimately what happened post the storm. The same thing happened in County Donegal. To be fair, the industry does mobilise in this regard. There is an exchange of information and we are in a process in which we seek to get to the right result.

I take Deputy Sherlock's point. We are in a free market and individual companies will make their own decisions. I come back, however, to my earlier comment. We are trying, with the MOU, to create an environment and a mechanism to share data that will give a degree of comfort to each company to increase their capacity and their acceptance of risk in this area. That is not to say that every company will do it and companies also may do it in different degrees. This comes back to my other point that if we can get the environment and the exchange of information right between us and the OPW and the relevant schemes, the likelihood is that we will attract in more players into the market. I also note the comments of the earlier contributors to the effect they already have attracted in two new players. That is welcome. We only see the OPW facilitating that more and more. If we can get the right framework through the MOU, we can do that. We are working hard to exchange information and to be fair to our members, they deploy people on the ground. They have more knowledge, through their claims experience and through their interaction, than we do in Insurance Ireland. We rely on their expertise when we engage with the OPW.