Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know the Alliance for Insurance Reform has many very practical proposals to deal with the issue of reducing liability. The mart sector is part of the fabric of rural Ireland. It also deals with isolation. Ms McGuinness has made several helpful recommendations. I want to focus on the idea of a grant funding scheme to help marts cover the costs associated with bringing their necessary operational changes into line with the proposed health and safety policies. It is a recognition from the sector that we need to do something different to improve health and safety in anticipation of insurance costs coming down, which has not happened in the past. I mentioned that proposal briefly to the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy D'Arcy, when I saw the opening statement. Over many years there has been State and EU support for the agricultural sector, for slatted sheds and so forth, some of which has been quite generous because we understand the importance of the agricultural sector to our economy and to the fabric of rural Ireland. I was interested to see that such support did not already exist for marts, which are the end point and sometimes the starting point in the process. Have there been any discussions with the Department or the Minister on this or does Ms McGuinness want to start the process of getting this committee's support to have a grant-funded scheme bringing the marts up to a safer standard?